WPR10LA174 · Piper PA30
Piper PA30 · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) during initial climb
From Hollister Municipal Airport (CVH) to Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport at Keāhole (KOA)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's registration. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR10LA174
- 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 PA30
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA30
- 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
- VHEXA Narrative disagrees
- Operator
- Gary C. Mitchell · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hollister Municipal Airport (CVH), Hollister, CATo Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport at Keāhole (KOA), Kona, HI
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Loss of engine power (partial)
- 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
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
In preparation for an extended over-water ferry flight, a ferry fuel tank system was installed on the airplane. On the day prior to the accident a certificated airframe and powerplant mechanic inspected the ferry fuel system, finding the airplane airworthy with respect to the work performed. The pilot then conducted a successful test flight of the ferry fuel system, with no anomalies noted. Prior to takeoff on the accident flight the pilot ran both engines up to full takeoff power, followed by brake release, after noting that takeoff power had been achieved. After the airplane became airborne the pilot selected the gear selector switch to retract the landing gear, with all indications normal. He reported that, when the airplane was about 60 feet above the ground, there was a loud bang and that the left engine subsequently “surged” and lost partial power. A witness stated that after the takeoff he heard a loud popping noise, and the pilot stated that the nose pitched up and he intuitively pushed forward on the yoke. The pilot reported that the engine power eventually returned; however, not before the airplane impacted terrain and came to rest in an inverted position. A postaccident examination of the airplane and engines failed to reveal the reason for the reported partial loss of engine power.
Probable cause
A partial loss of engine power during the initial climb for undetermined reasons.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR10LA174
- Event ID
- 20100323X54139
- Case number
- WPR10LA174
- 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. 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: 94cd21812d49fd5de4bbe239bd76ea402a7868be40084d2a4e3fd7ab0bf77a20; retrieved 2026-09-15T13:47:12.609Z.