WPR24LA088 · Piper PA-32R-301T
Piper PA-32R-301T · Accident: fuel starvation on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR24LA088
- 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
- Event fatalities
- Unknown
- 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 PA-32R-301T
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-32
- 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
- N989SR
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 22 years (built 2002)
- 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 pattern downwind
- 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
- Fuel starvation
- 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 systems
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that, during the local flight, he switched fuel tanks several times. While descending for landing at the conclusion of the flight, he conducted the before-landing checklist, switched fuel tanks, and turned on the electric fuel pump. On the downwind leg of the traffic pattern, he conducted the landing checklist and switched to the fullest fuel tank; however, he did not specifically recall if the fuel selector was placed in the detent of the fuel tank selected. While abeam the runway threshold, the engine lost partial power. The pilot attempted to troubleshoot by switching the fuel selector to the opposite fuel tank and cycled the electric fuel pump off and back on. Despite his attempts to troubleshoot, the engine lost total power. The pilot determined that the airplane would not reach the runway and initiated a forced landing to an open field, during which the airplane sustained substantial damage.
Examination of the recovered airframe and engine revealed no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. Continuity of the fuel system was established from the main fuel tanks throughout the system to the fuel servo. A test run of the engine revealed no anomalies.
Data retrieved from an onboard engine monitor indicated that, before the loss of power, the fuel flow decreased from about 15 gallons per hour to 0 gallons per hour, with corresponding reductions in engine rpm, horsepower, oil pressure, and oil temperature values. The total amount of fuel onboard the airplane before the flight could not be determined; however, fuel was found in the tanks after the accident. Based on the available information, it is likely that the pilot failed to ensure proper placement of the fuel selector, which resulted in fuel starvation and a total loss of engine power.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to ensure proper placement of the fuel selector, which resulted in a total loss of engine power due to fuel starvation.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR24LA088
- Event ID
- 20240212193783
- Case number
- WPR24LA088
- 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, 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: 287831fb7448a0af7772ad3abdad89edadf5f67fbb03f2ec8603993d87de3b99; retrieved 2026-09-16T18:30:24.078Z.