ERA12LA524 · Piper PA-32R-301T
Piper PA-32R-301T · Accident: powerplant system/component malfunction/failure during initial climb
From Peter O Knight Airport (TPF) to Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport (OPF)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA12LA524
- 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-32R-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
- N362DM
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Peter O Knight Airport (TPF), Tampa, FLTo Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport (OPF), Opa-Locka, 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
- 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
- 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 power plant
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane experienced an electrical discrepancy shortly after an instrument departure. The pilot advised the air traffic controller that he would be returning to the airport. While en route, the pilot noted a film of oil on the windshield. It became more pronounced, and the engine oil pressure dropped to “0.” The pilot declared an emergency and landed the airplane on an interstate highway median. An 8-foot section of the left wing separated when it collided with a highway traffic sign during the landing roll. The postaccident engine examination revealed that the oil leak was from the propeller governor gasket; specifically, the leak originated from the lower left lock nut area that secures the control cable tube end support bracket to the governor’s engine-mounted stud. The nut and lock washer were not properly seated and anti-tamper putty was present. The disassembly of that area revealed that the lower left corner of the gasket had several cracks promulgating to that lower left section of the gasket, which permitted the oil to escape. The top section of the tube end of the support bracket was missing (broken off), which would not allow for an even mounting torque pressure between the gasket, the propeller governor, and the engine surfaces.
A review of the airplane’s maintenance records revealed no history of any discrepancies that would require the removal of the control cable support bracket tube end. Based on physical damage to the control cable bracket tube end, it is likely that, at an unknown time, the tube end was removed from the stud and damaged during installation. This did not permit a proper seal of the gasket, which created the leak.
Probable cause
Damage to the propeller governor gasket during installation by unknown persons, which resulted in a total loss of engine oil in flight and a subsequent forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA12LA524
- Event ID
- 20120823X02434
- Case number
- ERA12LA524
- 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: d13d580c77c55360dd8600e09663de543961cba2245d49788dcd3a7b9e08dc7a; retrieved 2026-09-15T19:28:57.491Z.