ERA17LA005 · Piper PA28 140
Piper PA28 140 · Accident: loss of engine power (total) on approach
From Hattiesburg Laurel Regional Airport (PIB) to Hesler Noble Field (LUL)
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
- ERA17LA005
- 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 PA28 140
- 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
- N499TG
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hattiesburg Laurel Regional Airport (PIB), Hattiesburg, MSTo Hesler Noble Field (LUL), Laurel, MS
- Aircraft age
- About 42 years (built 1974)
- 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
- Approach · VFR go-around
- 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 (total)
- 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
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The student pilot departed with full fuel tanks and flew to a nearby airport to practice takeoffs and landings. In preparation for his first landing, he checked that the mixture was full-rich and that the electric fuel pump and carburetor heat were turned on. The student pilot reduced power and extended the flaps; however, he realized that the airplane was too high and chose to go around. The student pilot applied full power, retracted the flaps, and turned off the carburetor heat. At that point, the engine started running roughly and experienced a total loss of power. The student pilot turned the carburetor heat back on, rechecked that the electric fuel pump was still on, and switched fuel tanks, but engine power was not restored. The student pilot made a forced landing to a field adjacent to the airport.
Examination of the airplane revealed the carburetor had flooded and was leaking due to a stuck float, which prevented engine operation. The carburetor was removed and disassembled. No anomalies were noted with the float or needle/seat, and the carburetor was reassembled and reinstalled on the engine. The engine was subsequently started, and it ran with no anomalies noted. The reason for the stuck carburetor float could not be determined.
Probable cause
A total loss of engine power due to a stuck carburetor float. The reason the carburetor float became stuck could not be determined because postaccident examination of the float and needle/seat revealed no anomalies.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA17LA005
- Event ID
- 20161007X04645
- Case number
- ERA17LA005
- 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: f36c0f86102555ac8343183ae47aa712f1a563f83b3e4d88563d9a51135ef0cf; retrieved 2026-09-16T04:21:58.382Z.