WPR14LA249 · Piper PA 28-180
Piper PA 28-180 · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) during initial climb
From Gansner Field (2O1) to Gansner Field (2O1)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR14LA249
- 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 28-180
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N4931L
- Operator
- Parker Larry
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Gansner Field (2O1), Quincy, CATo Gansner Field (2O1), Quincy, CA
- Aircraft age
- About 47 years (built 1967)
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft power plant
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that, shortly after takeoff, the airplane would not climb; therefore, he chose to make a precautionary landing onto a nearby field. During the final approach, the stabilator impacted a fence post, and the pilot subsequently landed the airplane uneventfully.
During a postaccident examination of the exhaust system, the baffles within the muffler assembly were found partially separated and blocking the exhaust ducts, which would have restricted the airflow in the ducts and resulted in a loss of engine power when the airplane reached a higher engine rpm setting during takeoff. No additional mechanical anomalies were observed that would have precluded normal operation.
The airplane manufacturer's service manual states, in part, "a very thorough inspection of the entire exhaust system, including the…muffler and muffler baffles, stacks, and all exhaust connections and welds must be accomplished at each 100-hour inspection. The possibility of exhaust system failure increases with use." The airplane's most recent annual inspection, which should have included the items from the 100-hour inspection, occurred about 3 flight hours before the accident. Maintenance records indicated that maintenance personnel inspected the exterior of the muffler system; however, the records did not indicate that maintenance personnel performed the airplane manufacturer-recommended exhaust system inspection.
Probable cause
The partial loss of engine power during takeoff due to the separation of the exhaust baffling, which resulted in a partial blockage of airflow to the engine. Contributing to the accident was maintenance personnel’s inadequate inspection of the exhaust system during the airplane’s most recent maintenance.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR14LA249
- Event ID
- 20140617X04355
- Case number
- WPR14LA249
- 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: 70c81fca88c196bbe5cea00c6e2ffc3b73f199cac39541e0f0e9f06491dac5cd; retrieved 2026-09-16T00:05:39.005Z.