DFW08LA058 · Piper PA32-301FT
Piper PA32-301FT · Accident: powerplant system/component malfunction/failure before flight
From Taylor Municipal Airport (T74) to Marianna Municipal Airport (MAI)
Event
- NTSB case
- DFW08LA058
- 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 PA32-301FT
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA32
- 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
- N1053F
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Taylor Municipal Airport (T74), Taylor, TXTo Marianna Municipal Airport (MAI), Marianna, FL
- 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
- Prior to flight
- Defining eventThe 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
- Powerplant system/component malfunction/failure
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
While in cruise flight the airplane's engine lost partial power. Unable to maintain altitude, the pilot executed a forced landing to a clear cut area. During the landing roll, the airplane nosed over and came to rest in an inverted position. The pilot was able to exit the airplane unassisted. During an examination of the engine it was discovered that a brass hex plug, a component of the fuel injector servo, was hanging loose from its safety wire. The investigation revealed that the gasket, found between the brass hex plug and the aluminum regulator cover, had softened due to engine heat. This allowed the brass hex plug to vibrate and eventually fall out. This resulted in the partial loss of engine power. As a result of this investigation, the fuel servo manufacturer issued Mandatory Service Bulletin PRS-107 and the FAA issued Emergency Airworthiness Directive 2008-06-51.
Probable cause
The failure of the fuel servo gasket and subsequent partial loss of engine power. Contributing to the accident was the none-suitable terrain for the forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DFW08LA058
- Event ID
- 20080205X00136
- Case number
- DFW08LA058
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: 0ff74acef0a31d944b687966573fb189fb0b62447f9b7856c915256133241910; retrieved 2026-09-15T09:21:18.374Z.