WPR14LA336 · Piper PA 32R-300
Piper PA 32R-300 · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) during initial climb
From U42 · West Jordan, UT to Boise, ID
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR14LA336
- 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-300
- 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
- N4646F
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From U42 · West Jordan, UTTo Boise, ID
- Aircraft age
- About 38 years (built 1976)
- 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)
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Pole
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Witnesses located adjacent to the accident site reported that they observed the airplane depart, and that, as it was climbing, they heard the pilot state, "emergency," several times on the airport's common traffic advisory frequency; however, the pilot did not specify the nature of the emergency. The airplane subsequently struck a light post and then landed in an open soccer field south of the airport, and a postimpact fire ensued. Other witnesses located at the airport reported that the engine seemed to be backfiring throughout the entire takeoff and accident sequence. The pilot reported that he recalled the initial takeoff sequence and making the distress call; however, he did not recall the nature of the emergency or the accident sequence.
Postaccident examination of the airplane, flight control systems, engine, and propeller revealed no evidence of any preimpact mechanical malfunctions. Review of the airplane manufacturer's takeoff performance charts revealed that, at the time of the accident, the weather and environmental conditions were within the airplane's takeoff performance limitations. Given that the witnesses reported that the engine was backfiring and that the pilot declared an emergency, it is likely that the engine experienced a partial loss of power during initial climb. Due to the severity of the damage to the engine, the reason for the loss of power could not be determined.
Probable cause
A partial loss of engine power during initial climb for reasons that could not be determined due to the severity of the damage to the engine.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR14LA336
- Event ID
- 20140810X24216
- Case number
- WPR14LA336
- 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: 6aa8cef78add63fc4e0e39199656b87195ef9096613ba62b6e87765402d7670d; retrieved 2026-09-16T01:37:19.117Z.