ERA19LA160 · Piper PA28R 200
Navy Annapolis Flight Center Piper PA28R 200 · Accident: loss of engine power (total) on approach
From Cambridge Dorchester Airport (CGE) to Easton Airport / Newnam Field (ESN)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA19LA160
- 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 PA28R 200
- 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
- N33305
- Operator
- Navy Annapolis Flight Center
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Cambridge Dorchester Airport (CGE), Cambridge, MDTo Easton Airport / Newnam Field (ESN), Easton, MD
- Aircraft age
- About 44 years (built 1975)
- 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 · circling (IFR)
- 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
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The flight instructor and pilot were on a flight to resume the pilot's instrument training. After performing maneuvers and several touch-and-go landings, the pilots elected to perform a practice instrument approach to the destination airport. While on the approach, they configured the airplane for landing. The flight instructor noted that the airplane was below the glideslope and asked the pilot to increase engine power; however, the engine did not respond to the throttle input. The flight instructor took the controls and attempted to restore engine power without success. The propeller continued to windmill, the pilot switched fuel tanks, and the engine did not restart. The flight instructor performed a forced landing in a nearby field, during which the fuselage was substantially damaged. During recovery from the field, fuel was drained from both fuel tanks, and no water or debris was noted in the fuel. An examination of the engine revealed crankshaft and valvetrain continuity throughout the engine. The propeller was rotated through 360° of motion, and compression and suction were noted on all cylinders. In addition, fuel was plumbed into the engine, and the engine was started and ran smoothly without hesitation. The engine power was decreased to idle power, and then the engine was shut down. There were no mechanical malfunctions or failures noted with the engine that would have precluded normal operation before the accident. The reason for the loss of engine power could not be determined.
Probable cause
The loss of engine power for reasons that could not be determined because postaccident engine examination and testing revealed no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA19LA160
- Event ID
- 20190313X85945
- Case number
- ERA19LA160
- 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: 5dd8d251a1f0ac0ee2b45b3bb94d96aa0dd443e429d071753cf61b7d128505e7; retrieved 2026-09-16T08:39:47.961Z.