NYC07LA033 · Piper PA-32RT-300
Piper PA-32RT-300 · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Mayfield Graves County Airport (M25) to Capital City Airport (FFT)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC07LA033
- 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-32RT-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
- N3887M
- Operator
- Larry Crouch
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Mayfield Graves County Airport (M25), Mayfield, KYTo Capital City Airport (FFT), Frankfort, KY
- 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
- 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
- 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
While en route to his destination airport, the engine lost power and the pilot noticed smoke coming from the front of the airplane. He reported, "engine fire...going in," to air traffic control and was given vectors to the nearest airport. When he realized he would not be able to make it to the airport, the pilot performed a forced landing to a field. During the forced landing, the airplane impacted trees and was substantially damaged. Examination of the engine revealed the lower, right, forward cowling displayed fire damage near the number 1 cylinder exhaust, and soot damage under the number 1 cylinder. The number 1 exhaust gasket was intact with no evidence of exhaust gas leakage observed. Additionally, the number 1 exhaust gauge temperature (EGT) probe was backed out of the exhaust stack about 1/8 inch. Evidence of exhaust gas leakage was noted on the EGT probe. The engine data monitoring system was analyzed and revealed no anomalies during the accident flight. The last recorded data point indicated the fuel was cut off suddenly, to the engine. Examination of the fuel servo revealed no preimpact mechanical anomalies.
Probable cause
The loss of engine power for undetermined reasons.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC07LA033
- Event ID
- 20061221X01828
- Case number
- NYC07LA033
- 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: d9c0aaa6bcf06be4df85ed3754af1685e6a94134e98a32ff9ebdef386945d0d5; retrieved 2026-09-21T08:52:42.518Z.