ERA24LA302 · Piper PA-32RT-300T
Piper PA-32RT-300T · Accident: fire/smoke (non-impact) during takeoff
From an unrecorded airport to Wayne County Airport (EKQ)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA24LA302
- 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
- 0
- 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-32RT-300T
- 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
- N184VA
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Wayne County Airport (EKQ), Monticello, KY
- Aircraft age
- About 46 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- Fire/smoke (non-impact)
- 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 preflight and ground operations were normal. During the takeoff roll, he noticed a flashing exhaust gas temperature indication and elected to abort the takeoff. He pulled off onto a turnaround to troubleshoot the problem. A red “X” then appeared over the oil pressure display and one of the passengers noticed flames emanating from the right side of the engine cowling. The pilot shut down the engine, exited the airplane with the passengers, and attempted to extinguish the flames with a fire bottle and blankets. Postaccident examination of the wreckage determined that there was substantial fire and heat damage to the engine and forward fuselage. Further examination of the engine area revealed concentrated damage near cylinder Nos. 3 and 5. The B-nut on the stainless-steel fuel injector line between the No. 5 cylinder and the right fuel injector manifold was loose, and was less than finger-tight. The turbocharger was located aft of this loose B-nut. No other fuel system fittings were found to be loose. An annual inspection was completed on the airframe and engine two days before the accident, including maintenance that required removing and reinstalling the fuel injector lines. It is likely that the No. 5 cylinder B-nut was not securely tightened when reinstalled, allowing it to loosen and spray fuel on the turbocharger and exhaust system, resulting in an engine fire.
Probable cause
The failure of maintenance personnel to properly secure a B-nut on the No. 5 cylinder fuel injector line, resulting in a fuel leak and engine fire.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA24LA302
- Event ID
- 20240711194673
- Case number
- ERA24LA302
- 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: 0134361cccaed3592a332db12ef62a7a65c8ad6a3ca5a51cc55a91ca5059e07c; retrieved 2026-09-16T19:02:03.185Z.