ATL07CA074 · Piper PA-28R-201
Augusta Aviation Piper PA-28R-201 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Daniel Field (DNL) to St Marys Airport (4J6)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL07CA074
- 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-28R-201
- 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
- N47944
- Operator
- Augusta Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Daniel Field (DNL), Augusta, GATo St Marys Airport (4J6), St Marys, GA
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, improper
- Fluid, oil › Exhaustion
- Lubricating system, oil quickdrain/drain plug › Unapproved
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to the pilot, while at 5,000 feet in cruise flight, the low oil pressure enunciator light illuminated. The pilot reported the low oil pressure condition to Augusta Approach, and they vectored him towards the Burke City Airport. The pilot reduced power and started his descent. The pilot stated that the engine began surging then "quit/seized followed by smoke billowing out from the engine cowling." The pilot declared an emergency to Augusta Approach and decided to make an off airport landing. During the approach to landing the pilot realized that the field he chose to land on had just been harvested of trees leaving several tree stumps protruding above the ground which the airplane struck. The landing gear collapsed after touch down and the airplane skidded to a stop. The pilot stated that he was not injured, and was also unable to contact Augusta Approach either by radio or cell phone. The pilot stated that he walked about 1/4 mile until he could get a signal on his cell phone to report the accident. According to the airplane owner/operator, a mechanic had installed an engine oil quick drain prior to the flight. The mechanic was unaware that a quick drain was not recommended for installation on the PA-28R, as a result when the pilot retracted the landing gear after takeoff, the nose gear compressed the quick drain allowing the engine oil to drain out during the pilot's flight. According to the operator, after the accident the president of the company directed that all shop employees be given instruction in regards to why quick drains should not be installed on PA-28R Piper Arrows. Examination of the airplane by an FAA inspector found that the airplane sustained substantial damage to both wings and the fuselage.
Probable cause
Company maintenance personnel’s improper installation of an unapproved oil quick drain plug which resulted in oil exhaustion and subsequent loss of engine power during cruise flight.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL07CA074
- Event ID
- 20070524X00626
- Case number
- ATL07CA074
- 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: 9b52f4f0c7f0d3d7b2c0b16165b0b5a2f704ab60c688f41a991064ac4f06d98e; retrieved 2026-09-22T03:54:44.756Z.