ERA15CA107 · Piper PA-28-161
Piper PA-28-161 · Accident: loss of control on ground while standing
From Thomas C Russell Field (ALX) to Ozark-Blackwell Field (71J)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA15CA107
- 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-28-161
- 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
- N104SA
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Thomas C Russell Field (ALX), Alexander City, ALTo Ozark-Blackwell Field (71J), Ozark, AL
- Aircraft age
- About 36 years (built 1979)
- 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
- Standing · engine(s) start-up
- 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 control on ground
- 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 handling/service
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
On the day of the accident, the pilot had to get the airplane jumpstarted as the battery was low on energy. Later during his flight home, he landed at an airport to refuel. After refueling, he attempted to start the engine. The battery however, was too weak to start the engine. The pilot then checked the parking brake was engaged and got out to look for his portable jump starter pack in the storage compartment. It was not however onboard. He then proceeded to look for someone to assist in starting. Not finding anyone, he went back to the airplane and set the mixture to full rich, opened the throttle about 10 percent, primed the engine about 8 to 10 times, turned the magneto switch to "BOTH", checked the parking brake, and attempted to hand-prop the engine twice without success. He then checked these items again and once again attempted to hand-prop the engine. The engine still failed to start. He assumed the engine was flooded. Therefore, he set the mixture to idle cutoff, turned off the magnetos, and checked the parking brake once again. He then got out of the aircraft and prior to touching the propeller, visually looked in the cabin to check that the key for the magneto switch wasn't in the "BOTH" position. He then hand-propped it. A puff of smoke came out of the exhaust, and the engine suddenly accelerated to maximum rpm. He immediately moved from in front of the propeller. He then thought "the brakes are on, don't worry", then noticed that the airplane was moving and picking up speed. At this point, he was in front of the right wing. He then attempted to grab hold of the door, hop on wing and get into the airplane. He could not however get a grip on door as the slipstream from the propeller pushed it shut. He was then dragged and run over by the airplane. The airplane then made contact with a ditch and was substantially damaged. The pilot advised that he had been having problems with the battery holding a charge, and that he should have replaced it. He also advised that apparently one magneto was still on; he should have used chocks, and should not have attempted to hand-prop it by himself.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to properly secure the airplane before hand-propping the engine for startup.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA15CA107
- Event ID
- 20150120X40744
- Case number
- ERA15CA107
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2015-01-19.
- API snapshot SHA-256: ae9509b9cccd3a3af7c719e1e54f6befdd619853fa8d87b8d7f898990083a53f; retrieved 2026-09-16T02:02:04.936Z.