ERA17FA112 · Piper PA38 112
International Aviation Piper PA38 112 · Accident: system/component malfunction/failure (non-power) during initial climb
From Tweed New Haven Airport (HVN) to Tweed New Haven Airport (HVN)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA17FA112
- 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
- 1 · 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 PA38 112
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA38
- 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
- N2452C
- Operator
- International Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tweed New Haven Airport (HVN), East Haven, CTTo Tweed New Haven Airport (HVN), East Haven, CT
- Aircraft age
- About 39 years (built 1978)
- 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
- System/component malfunction/failure (non-power)
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, not marked as estimated; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The flight instructor and the student pilot were practicing touch-and-go landings in the airplane. During the initial climb after the fourth landing, the flight instructor reported an emergency to air traffic control and indicated that he was going to return and land on a runway at the airport. During that transmission, a stall warning horn was sounding. The airplane then spun to the left and descended to impact in a marsh.
The damage to the airplane was consistent with the airplane being in a left spin at impact, and the propeller displayed little damage, which is consistent with the engine not producing power at impact. The fuel selector handle was found positioned to the right main fuel tank; however, examination of the fuel selector's polymeric insert revealed that it had fractured and was in a position that provided openings of about 20% for the right main fuel tank inlet and for the engine outlet, instead of the 100% openings that would have been present with an intact polymeric insert. With only 20% of the normal fuel flow available, the airplane likely experienced a total loss of engine power due to fuel starvation. One of the pilots likely switched fuel tank positions during the previous touch-and-go landing, and the polymeric insert failed at that time. Examination of the wreckage did not reveal any other preimpact mechanical malfunctions.
Metallurgical examination of the fuel selector valve revealed that the lower portion of the polymeric insert exhibited fracture features consistent with rotational ductile overstress. Abrasive wear was present on the outer portion of the insert due to contact with burs on the valve housing. The wear likely took place over a period during which the fuel selector handle would have been difficult to move and excessive force would have been required to move the handle from one position to another.
Review of maintenance records did not reveal any prior anomalies with the fuel selector. The airplane maintenance manual contained instructions, applicable to 100-hour inspections, for the fuel selector to be inspected for condition, security, and operation. The instructions stated that, if the valve binds, sticks, or is otherwise difficult to operate, the fuel selector valve should be lubricated. However, about 5 months had passed since the most recent 100-hour inspection was completed on the airplane. During that time, the airplane had been operated about 78 hours. The investigation could not determine the condition of the fuel selector valve at the last 100-hour inspection.
Probable cause
The failure of the fuel selector valve in a position that restricted fuel flow to the engine, resulting in a total loss of engine power during initial climb due to fuel starvation. Also causal was the operator's failure to effectively detect and resolve the wear and progressive binding of the fuel selector valve before it failed due to excessive rotational force being applied. Contributing was the flight instructor's exceedance of the airplane's critical angle of attack during an emergency return to the airport, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall/spin.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA17FA112
- Event ID
- 20170222X12747
- Case number
- ERA17FA112
- 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, coordinates. 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: c8aad4d40cd7ae24fa914ccd44673a51756cf9f8428ae975823025a0c4492ba6; retrieved 2026-09-15T05:58:53.571Z.