NYC05LA111 · Piper PA-28-180
Piper PA-28-180 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From Lee Gilmer Memorial Airport (GVL) to Moraine Air Park (I73)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC05LA111
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-28-180
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N3992R
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Narrative disagrees
- From Lee Gilmer Memorial Airport (GVL), Gainesville, GATo Moraine Air Park (I73), Dayton, OH
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Initial climb
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Fuel contamination
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot flew to the airport 2 days prior to the accident, and parked the airplane. On the day of the accident the airplane was fueled with 33.1 gallons fuel, and the pilot conducted a "thorough" preflight inspection, which included taking fuel samples from the sump drains. Upon takeoff from runway 26, the pilot smelled smoke, but elected to not abort the takeoff due to insufficient remaining runway. The airplane climbed to an altitude of 500 feet, when the pilot felt that "things just weren't right," and he elected to return to the airport. As he banked the airplane to the left, the engine suddenly lost power. The pilot then performed a forced landing, where the airplane struck trees, and subsequently impacted the ground. Prior to the accident, a witness observed the pilot conduct a high-speed taxi down the runway, exiting the runway at the midfield point, and begin to taxi towards the run-up area. Approximately 5 minutes later, the witness heard the airplane's engine sputter as it passed mid-field. The airplane was already airborne, and it seemed like it was having trouble climbing over the river levy, located at the departure end of the runway. Examination of the airplane revealed that the left and right wing fuel filler openings displayed "heavy" corrosion. Their respective filler cap gaskets were worn and flattened, and did not form an effective seal. The engine was removed from the airframe and placed on a test stand. The engine was started, and ran with no abnormalities noted. A fuel sample device was found in the wreckage. Examination of the fuel sample device revealed loose sediment and debris in the bottom of the cup, and it smelled of must, which was consistent with lack of recent use. Review of recorded weather that about .35 inches of rain fell on the day prior to the accident, while the airplane was parked outside.
Probable cause
The pilot's inadequate preflight inspection that resulted in fuel contamination and a subsequent loss of engine power. A factor related to the accident was the deteriorated fuel cap seals.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC05LA111
- Event ID
- 20050720X01064
- Case number
- NYC05LA111
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: a25d86c1ec66916e8c53e28499aed2d34fdaf072fe9e2281ffe4d0f370a1e726; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:58:11.934Z.