DFW07LA009 · Piper PA-38-112
Piper PA-38-112 · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From 5R3 · Lago Vista, TX to Wimberley, TX
Event
- NTSB case
- DFW07LA009
- 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-38-112
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-38
- 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
- N2426N
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 5R3 · Lago Vista, TXTo Wimberley, TX
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- 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 starvation
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, improper
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The 201-hour private pilot departed at about 11:15 on a local cross-country flight with 6 quarts of oil in the engine and 12 gallons of fuel on board. After takeoff, he climbed to 2,500 with the electric boost pump on. Later, during cruise flight the "engine powered back" and the pilot tried to reapply full power to the engine by "checking the fuses and [fuel] primer, as well as, turning on the electric fuel pump and turning to the left fuel tank." The engine did not respond and the pilot elected to execute a forced landing in a field. During a telephone conversation with the NTSB IIC, the pilot stated that the engine "sputtered out" and "then came back, sputtering again" before "quitting completely." During the recovery of the airplane, recovery personnel reported draining 7 gallons of fuel from the right fuel tank and that the left tank was empty. An engine inspection was conducted on November 15, 2006. The engine sustained minimum impact damage during the accident sequence. The engine was rotated by hand; continuity through the engine's valve train and compression on each cylinder was established. The bracket air filter was in place, and appeared in good condition and free of obstructions. The airplane's electrical system was turned on and the electric fuel boost pump was switched on; the electric pump appeared to operate normally. Approximately two tablespoons of fuel was drained from the carburetor. The gascolator was opened and found to be dry and clear, the screen at the top of the gascolator was in-place and free of any debris. The engine was examined and no mechanical anomalies were noted. The airplane's information manual states under Fuel Limitations: "... The unusable fuel for this airplane has been determined as 1.0 gallon in each wing in critical flight attitudes." Additionally, the manual states that fuel consumption during cruise flight would be 6.5 gallons/hour (75%, Best Power setting).
Probable cause
the pilot's inadequate pre-flight planning which resulted in fuel starvation and the subsequent the loss of engine power. A contributing factor was the lack of suitable terrain for the forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DFW07LA009
- Event ID
- 20061031X01574
- Case number
- DFW07LA009
- 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: 68eec6ef9a40dd0fbc6212b7b9bda123095dd374c637c62e485d53cb89b83a94; retrieved 2026-09-22T04:18:02.375Z.