WPR14LA298 · Piper PA 30
Piper PA 30 · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) during initial climb
From Othello Municipal Airport (S70) to Crater Lake-Klamath Regional Airport (KLMT)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's location. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR14LA298
- 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 30
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-30
- 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
- N7981Y
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Othello Municipal Airport (S70), Othello, WATo Crater Lake-Klamath Regional Airport (KLMT), Klamath Falls, OR
- Aircraft age
- About 48 years (built 1966)
- 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
The private pilot of the twin-engine airplane was preparing to take off for a cross-country flight. He reported that during the power up for takeoff, the left engine was at 2,200 rpm while the right engine was at 2,600 rpm. He leaned the mixture on the left engine to bring the rpm up to 2,600 and proceeded with the takeoff. After the takeoff roll, he started to climb the airplane and noted that the exhaust gas temperature on the left engine was much higher than on the right engine. The left engine rpm suddenly dropped to 2,000, and the airplane yawed to the left and started to descend. The pilot could not stop the yaw and descent, and the airplane impacted the ground, which resulted in substantial damage.
The pilot reported that he should not have leaned the left engine for takeoff.
A review of the left engine's logbook revealed a logbook entry about 4 months before the accident noting that the fuel flow divider, fuel servo, and turbo charger had been removed, repaired, and reinstalled. The entry also noted that a flow test was performed and that the engine was tested, checked for leaks, and returned to service.
The airplane and engines were sold for salvage and were not available for examination; therefore, the reason for the partial loss of engine power could not be determined.
Probable cause
The partial loss of engine power for reasons that could not be determined based on the available information.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR14LA298
- Event ID
- 20140718X52044
- Case number
- WPR14LA298
- 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: 5901de46773f5f0d1d4630a6e15e3327614b18d360773ddfde89c84ee4f975b3; retrieved 2026-09-16T00:56:08.710Z.