NYC07FA043 · Piper PA-32R-300
Piper PA-32R-300 · Accident: loss of engine power on approach
From Richmond Executive-Chesterfield County Airport (FCI) to Charlottesville Albemarle Airport (CHO)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC07FA043
- 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
- 1 · 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
- N8349C
- Operator
- Christopher Desch
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Richmond Executive-Chesterfield County Airport (FCI), Richmond, VATo Charlottesville Albemarle Airport (CHO), Charlottesville, 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
- Approach
- 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
- Tree(s)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
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
While on approach to the destination airport, the pilot reported to the air traffic control tower controller that, "his engine was out," but that he was going to try to land at the airport. The pilot was subsequently cleared to land on runway 3, and responded, "I don't know if I can make it there." A witness, who was the pilot of an emergency services (EMS) helicopter, heard communications on the tower frequency regarding an airplane in distress, and followed the airplane to provide assistance. The witness noted that the airplane was "extremely low," and the propeller was not turning. The aircraft cleared a tree line about 200 yards south of the crash site and continued descending into a clearing. Several seconds later, the airplane entered an approximate 20 degree bank to the left, impacted trees and "exploded." An open field was noted adjacent to the wooded area, which the airplane impacted. The engine was completely disassembled after the accident and no pre-impact anomalies were observed. The engine accessories were all severely fire-damaged and could not be tested. Examination of the engine logbook revealed the engine was 511 hours and approximately 1 year past the engine manufacturer's recommended time between overhauls.
Probable cause
A loss of engine power for undetermined reasons.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC07FA043
- Event ID
- 20061221X01827
- Case number
- NYC07FA043
- 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: 009f279c022bd25c6fd69a88d2300dca10ab3fdc75c603149ee5b90a06473b77; retrieved 2026-09-20T16:57:59.800Z.