ERA16LA154 · Piper PA28 180
Piper PA28 180 · Accident: fire/smoke (non-impact) while standing
From Allegheny County Airport (AGC) to Allegheny County Airport (AGC)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA16LA154
- 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
- 0
- 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 PA28 180
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA28
- 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
- N16366
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Allegheny County Airport (AGC), West Mifflin, PATo Allegheny County Airport (AGC), West Mifflin, PA
- Aircraft age
- About 43 years (built 1973)
- 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
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft power plant
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The private pilot stated that he attempted to start the airplane's engine but that it would not start. On the fifth attempt, he followed the "starting engine when flooded" checklist. As the propeller was turning with the starter motor engaged, white smoke began to emanate from the engine cowling. He then turned off the master switch, exited the airplane, and opened the engine cowling. Flames suddenly emanated from the left side of the engine. The engine and compartment subsequently sustained substantial fire and heat damage. The pilot added that there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions with the airplane; examination of the wreckage revealed that the primer control was not in and locked. Review of a pilot's operating manual for the airplane revealed that, if an engine fire occurs during start, the pilot should move the mixture control to idle, move the throttle control to full open, and continue to turn the engine with the starter motor in an attempt to pull the fire into the engine. If the pilot had followed this procedure, it is likely that the fire would have been extinguished and prevented further damage to the airplane.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to follow checklist procedures for an engine fire during start.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA16LA154
- Event ID
- 20160412X61529
- Case number
- ERA16LA154
- 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: 1b29c9a53c514b031596cbaa0c99de526ce604187bdd64fd42000f334fd312aa; retrieved 2026-09-16T03:17:21.484Z.