DEN07CA105 · Piper PA-32-301T
Piper PA-32-301T · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Scottsdale, AZ to Santa Fe Municipal Airport (SAF)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN07CA105
- 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-32-301T
- 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
- N8207Z
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Scottsdale, AZTo Santa Fe Municipal Airport (SAF), Santa Fe, NM
- 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 · climb to 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
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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 exhaustion
- 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 › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported being approximately 7,200 feet, 3 miles south of the airport, when the airplane's engine began to run rough. The pilot turned back toward the airport and then determined that he would not be able to reach it. About that time, the engine "stopped completely." The pilot decided to attempt a forced landing to a hilly pasture. During the forced landing the airplane impacted the rough terrain, the landing gear sheared off, and the right wing bent upward approximately 3 feet inboard of the tip. Inspectors at the scene reported the right wing was also broken aft at the wing root. The pilot and passenger sustained minor injuries. An examination of the airplane showed the left wing fuel tank empty. The right wing fuel tank showed some residual fuel. The airplane's fuel selector valve was positioned to the left wing fuel tank. Flight control continuity was confirmed. An examination of the engine, engine controls, and other airplane systems showed no anomalies.
Probable cause
The pilot's inadequate preflight planning and preparation, and improper in-flight decisions resulting in fuel exhaustion. A factor was the unsuitable terrain for landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN07CA105
- Event ID
- 20070727X01030
- Case number
- DEN07CA105
- 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: b4950c9fffb50040549daeed0de462ddd6a3fad565018fa2f4d66f66f6202786; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:28:52.280Z.