NYC06LA185 · Piper PA-32R-300
Piper PA-32R-300 · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From Virginia Tech Montgomery Executive Airport (BCB) to W79 · Tappahannock, VA
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC06LA185
- 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-32R-300
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-32
- 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
- N43945
- Operator
- Linwood E Wadsworth · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Virginia Tech Montgomery Executive Airport (BCB), Blacksburg, VATo W79 · Tappahannock, VA
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane was completely fueled earlier during the day, and completed one flight uneventfully. The airplane departed on runway 30 for a return flight to the pilot's home airport. About 200 feet agl, the engine began to run rough and lost partial power. The electric fuel pump was already on, and the pilot switched fuel tanks, but the engine continued to run rough. The pilot initially flew a left hand traffic pattern for runway 30; however, he subsequently did not think the airplane would reach that runway. The pilot then performed a forced landing to a closed runway oriented about 070 degrees. The airplane touched down near the end of the runway, traveled over a grassy area, and struck trees. Examination of the wreckage revealed that the flaps were in the retracted position. The left wing fuel tank was compromised during the impact. The right wing fuel tank remained intact, and was approximately 1/4-full. In addition, fuel was present in the fuel manifold. The fuel selector was found positioned toward the left tank position, but not in the detent. Further examination of the wreckage revealed that the number six exhaust valve pushrod was bent, possibly during recovery of the airplane. Examination of the engine, including the number six cylinder exhaust valve, did not reveal any preimpact mechanical malfunctions. The airplane's most recent annual inspection was performed about 20 days prior to the accident, and the airplane had accumulated approximately 3 hours of operation since the inspection.
Probable cause
A partial loss of engine power for undetermined reasons, which resulted in a forced landing after takeoff, and subsequent collision with trees.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC06LA185
- Event ID
- 20060806X01094
- Case number
- NYC06LA185
- 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: 940674866bfbe32d060f892b65292f2086ea7857a1a0b68c11d001fe9d35427b; retrieved 2026-09-21T08:55:12.336Z.