Piper PA-28-140 N6399W

Summary

On 9 February 2005 at about 22:30 local time, a Piper PA-28-140 registered N6399W was involved in an accident near Superior, Montana, United States. 2 people were on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

9 February 2005 at 22:30

Classification

Accident

Location

Superior, Montana, United States

Nearest airport

Mineral County Airport (S94)

Coordinates

47.1653, -114.8161

Aircraft

Piper PA-28-140

Registration

N6399W

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Three Rivers → Superior

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

SEA05LA048

Nobody was injured.

A loss of engine power due to the pilot's inadequate planning/decision and improper fuel management, which resulted in fuel starvation. A contributing factor was the berm.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

The pilot elected to make an unscheduled landing due to what he perceived as a low fuel state, as both fuel gages were indicating less than one-quarter full. While maneuvering in the traffic pattern to afford another airplane on the runway adequate time to depart, the airplane's engine began to run rough, then lost power completely. The pilot went through the checklist to restart the airplane, and nearing the end of the runway power was restored, but only briefly; the engine failed a second time and there was no attempt to restart it. A clearing was located in which to land and after touching down and rolling out, the nose gear impacted a berm, which resulted in the nose gear failing aft causing substantial damage to the firewall. During the recovery process approximately one quart of fuel was observed in the right tank and 5.5 gallons in the left tank; the fuel selector was positioned in the LEFT TANK position. The pilot said he thought the fuel selector was in the Right Tank position prior to the engine quitting, however, couldn't say for sure if he moved it to the LEFT TANK position when the engine quit. A post accident examination revealed no preimpact failures or malfunctions which would have precluded normal operation.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.