ERA20LA062 · Piper PA32RT 300
Piper PA32RT 300 · Accident: loss of engine power (total) during initial climb
From Asheville Regional Airport (AVL) to Cobb County International Airport-McCollum Field (RYY)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA20LA062
- 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 PA32RT 300
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA32
- 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
- N27GB
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Asheville Regional Airport (AVL), Asheville, NCTo Cobb County International Airport-McCollum Field (RYY), Atlanta, GA
- Aircraft age
- About 41 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
- 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 as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that shortly after taking off, the airplane experienced a loss of engine power so he subsequently performed a forced landing to a parking lot. During the approach to land, he thought the oil pressure gauge was in the “yellow,” and the engine felt like it was “rolling back.” During the impact sequence, the airplane struck a chain link fence, and an electrical distribution box before coming to rest. Much of the airplane was consumed by a postcrash fire. Examination of the engine revealed that the drivetrain could not be rotated during an attempted rotation by hand of the propeller. Removal of the six cylinders revealed discoloration consistent with lack of lubrication of the connecting rod journals; furthermore, the number four connecting rod was separated from the crankshaft. Removal of the accessories, accessory case, and oil sump revealed that two of the oil pump’s drive gear teeth were fractured. No visible damage was observed to the idler gear which drove the oil pump. Examination revealed the idler gear would not rotate the oil pump drive gear with two separated teeth. Examination of the oil pump drive gear indicated that the two teeth fractured in overstress under rotation. The direction of bending and shear in the teeth fracture was consistent with the direction of rotation of the gear. Given this information, it is likely that the lack of rotation of the oil pump due to the broken teeth resulted in a lack of lubrication to the engine and the subsequent total loss of engine power. The reason for the failure of the oil pump drive gear teeth could not be determined.
Probable cause
A failure of two of the oil pump drive gear’s teeth, which resulted in a loss of engine oil lubrication, and a total loss of engine power.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA20LA062
- Event ID
- 20200102X93921
- Case number
- ERA20LA062
- 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, cause areas. 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: 512f364b6d5ab6145f6aa42ba7f57ab6c8f85d09c57122011b81ad085c9ceafe; retrieved 2026-09-16T10:51:51.246Z.