CEN19LA317 · Piper PA28 201T
Piper PA28 201T · Accident: loss of engine power (total) during initial climb
From Boca Raton Airport (BCT) to Boca Raton Airport (BCT)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN19LA317
- 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 201T
- 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
- N2890T
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Boca Raton Airport (BCT), Boca Raton, FLTo Boca Raton Airport (BCT), Boca Raton, FL
- Aircraft age
- About 40 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
- 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
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft power plant
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Following a partial loss of engine power after takeoff, the pilot returned to the airport and performed a visual inspection and engine test run with a mechanic, which revealed no anomalies. The pilot then chose to perform another flight without identifying the cause of the loss of engine power and the mechanic agreed to accompany him. As the airplane climbed through 400 to 500 ft above ground level after takeoff, the engine ran rough, and the pilot started a turn back to the airport. The engine subsequently lost total power and the airplane impacted terrain and obstacles.
The airplane was equipped with an engine monitor that captured exhaust gas temperatures (EGT), cylinder head temperatures (CHT), and turbine inlet temperature (TIT). TIT is the direct measurement of the temperature of combined exhaust from all cylinders immediately before it enters the turbocharger, but the measurement itself is not used in the normal operation of the turbocharger. The data showed a rapid drop in TIT about 45 seconds before changes in the CHT and EGT associated with both loss of power events on the day of the accident. The data also recorded three other sessions in which the TIT dropped similarly, but there were no associated changes to EGT or CHT values to indicate a loss of engine power on those occasions. No evidence was found to indicate a loss of engine power resulted directly from the changes in TIT or what caused those changes.
Examination of the engine revealed a hole in the turbocharger’s automatic wastegate controller diaphragm, which would result in the wastegate failing toward the closed position. The closed wastegate would increase manifold pressure and decrease the efficiency of the turbocharger at higher altitudes; however, a closed wastegate would not result in a total loss of engine power. The reason for the loss of engine power could not be determined based on available evidence.
Probable cause
The total loss of engine power for reasons that could not be determined based on available evidence and the pilot’s decision to take off without fully troubleshooting the partial loss of engine power that occurred during the previous flight.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN19LA317
- Event ID
- 20190911X11037
- Case number
- CEN19LA317
- 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: 42c8a84dacdfd4d1813dbdbddbfdb7ef08c77b2b447d4df4c56653ca0a62ae6b; retrieved 2026-09-16T10:01:56.866Z.