ENG14IA018 · Piper PA46 500TP
Lavinia Aircraft Leasing Piper PA46 500TP · Incident: fire/smoke (non-impact) while taxiing
From Centennial Airport (APA) to Phoenix, AZ
Event
- NTSB case
- ENG14IA018
- 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
- Incident
- 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 PA46 500TP
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA46
- 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
- N406CD
- Operator
- Lavinia Aircraft Leasing
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Centennial Airport (APA), Denver, COTo Phoenix, AZ
- Aircraft age
- About 13 years (built 2001)
- 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
- Taxi · into takeoff position
- 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
- Fire/smoke (non-impact)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
- Organizational issues › Management
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AIRFRAME ENGINE CONTROLS
Before the engine was removed, an examination of the aircraft after the event revealed that all FCU control pressure (Py and P3) lines were intact, secured and leak-free. Additionally, the FCU control linkage and cabling from cockpit quadrant to the power lever (PLA) and the MOR lever were connected and operated smoothly and with full range of travel. The MOR linkage was further examined and no rigging errors were detected.
Findings: No engine control rigging errors on the airframe were detected.
ENGINE
On September 16-18, 2014, the engine was examined at the P&WC facility in Montreal, Canada.
Findings: Examination of the engine and accessory components revealed no anomalies that would have contributed to the reported event.
GARMIN DATA
A review of the data from the Garmin onboard readout device revealed that during the last taxi, the engine was allowed to decay to a sub-idle condition with gas generator speed (Ng) approximately 39% (normal idle Ng is 64%) and ITT 830° Celsius (°C) when Ng increased to approximately 47% and the ITT almost to 1300° C, corresponding to the activation of the MOR. According to the P&WC manuals, the maximum operating turbine temperature limit for takeoff is 800°C while the maximum allowable transient (limited to only 5 seconds) temperature during starting is 1000 °C.
Turbine engines, at idle, require a minimum speed to operate. When operating below this speed, the compressor is operating in an inefficient manner, and cannot supply enough cooling air to the core components, causing a hot condition. When, in this already hot condition, an acceleration demand is made of the engine, excess fuel is injected into the combustor, further heating the core components, causing an overtemperature.
High bleed air demands from the engine at idle can cause a decaying rpm condition. During this event, a hot day caused the pilot to increase air conditioning in the cabin which took considerable bleed air from the engine, which may have caused a decrease in RPM. To correct this decrease, the pilot must simply increase the power lever until idle speed is maintained. If the pilot does not pay attention to the idle RPM, and allows it to go to a sub-idle condition, a 'bog-down' may result and the fuel control will sense this and refuse to accelerate. The only option for the pilot is to shut the engine down and re-start. If the MOR is used at this time, an engine overtemperature and failure will likely result.
Findings: The pilot did not pay attention to the engine indications and allowed the engine to 'bog down'. His subsequent use of the MOR caused the overtemperature and failure of the engine.
Based on the pilots' statement, the Garmin readout data, and the lack of any anomalies in any of the engine accessories, it was concluded that the cause of the fire from the exhaust was due to the sudden introduction of fuel by the activation of the MOR, which along with the sub-idle speed condition of the engine at the time of the activation, resulted in a significant high temperature exposure of the CT blades, and their subsequent distress and failure of the engine.
PIPER MERIDIAN POH MOR GUIDANCE
The pilot stated that he believed that his use of the MOR was in accordance with the Piper pilot's operating handbook (POH). A review of the Piper POH Section 4 - Normal Procedures (Reference: Piper Report: VB-1689 – Revision June 4, 2013) revealed that the Piper guidance was contrary to the P&WC recommendations, which states "the emergency manual override system which is intended to be used in the event of a loss of Power Lever (PLA) control due to loss of air pressure to the Fuel Control Unit (FCU) during flight.", Piper guidance allows pilots to use the MOR on the ground, even at sub-idle RPM conditions, and further, gives the impression that reverting to the MOR is a normal procedure rather than an emergency procedure.
Findings: A review of the Piper POH revealed an error in the guidance for MOR operation.
Probable cause
The pilots' incorrect activation of the Manual Override Lever, during ground operation, in an attempt to correct a sub-idle speed condition of the engine, resulting in an over-temperature of the CT blades, their subsequent distress and failure of the engine.
Contributing to the incident was:
The incorrect guidance of the Piper Meridian Pilots' Operating Handbook which, contrary to the engine manufacturer's recommendation, allowed the operation of the Manual Over ride Lever during ground operation.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ENG14IA018
- Event ID
- 20140707X54439
- Case number
- ENG14IA018
- 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: 11e04533c9e3d25c0dd2e5b18ea3b94374f0764e7069b0c8071b28468ad0b01e; retrieved 2026-09-16T00:50:52.808Z.