NYC07LA166 · Piper PA-23-160
Piper PA-23-160 · Accident: undershoot on approach
From Enterprise Municipal Airport (EDN) to Enterprise Municipal Airport (EDN)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC07LA166
- 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-23-160
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-23
- 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
- N4043P
- Operator
- Quinton Jenkins
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Enterprise Municipal Airport (EDN), Enterprise, ALTo Enterprise Municipal Airport (EDN), Enterprise, AL
- 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 · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Undershoot
- 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
- Designated examiner › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Designated examiner › Remedial action, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A Federal-Aviation-Administration-designated (FAA) pilot examiner was giving a private pilot checkride for the purpose of the private pilot obtaining a commercial pilot certificate with a rating for airplane multi-engine land. Toward the end of the checkride, the private pilot had completed single-engine maneuvers, including a simulated single-engine instrument approach to a full-stop landing. The private pilot believed that the only remaining maneuvers to be completed were a short-field landing and emergency descent. During the final approach for a short-field landing, the examiner simulated a right engine failure. The private pilot feathered the right propeller, but thought that the examiner may have "bumped it out of feather and set it to zero thrust." Shortly thereafter, the private pilot realized that the airplane was not going to reach the runway, and attempted a go-around. When power was increased on both engines, the airplane started to turn left. The private pilot then noticed that the left propeller speed was decreasing. The examiner took control of the airplane, reduced power on both engines, and landed in a grass field. Examination of the airplane did not reveal any preimpact mechanical malfunctions, and the left propeller was observed in the feathered position. Both propeller controls were found mid-range, with the left propeller control trailing the right propeller control by approximately 1 inch. The FAA Commercial Pilot Practical Test Standards contained instructions for the applicant to actually feather a propeller, but it specified that the procedure be done at altitude. All other references pertained to simulating propeller feathering. Further review of the test standards revealed that, "The examiner is expected to use good judgment in the performance of simulated emergency procedures. The use of the safest means for simulation is expected. Consideration must be given to local conditions, both meteorological and topographical, at the time of the test, as well as the applicant's workload, and the condition of the aircraft used."
Probable cause
The designated examiner's improper decision to simulate an engine failure on short final approach, in conjunction with a short-field landing maneuver, and his inadequate remedial action. Contributing to the accident was the private pilot's inadvertent feathering of the left propeller.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC07LA166
- Event ID
- 20070806X01111
- Case number
- NYC07LA166
- 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. 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: 4b50ac1d25772c93e932799ae3f3bd0f2cc5e6465194c86c5a10af0af077cb46; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:27:13.264Z.