Piper PA-34-200T N66AH

Summary

On 22 March 2008 at about 03:06 local time, a Piper PA-34-200T registered N66AH, operated by William A. McMahan, was involved in an accident near Covington, Tennessee, United States. One person was on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was destroyed. No probable cause statement is available for this record.

Date

22 March 2008 at 03:06

Classification

Accident

Location

Covington, Tennessee, United States

Nearest airport

Covington Municipal Airport (M04)

Coordinates

35.5833, -89.5869

Aircraft

Piper PA-34-200T

Registration

N66AH

Category

Airplane

Engines

2

Operator

William A. McMahan

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Covington → Millington

Aircraft damage

Destroyed

Weather

VMC

NTSB number

NYC08LA144

Nobody was injured.

The NTSB has not published a probable cause for this record. No probable cause statement is present in the source data.

Nothing about the cause is stated here that is not in the source record.

Read the full NTSB narrative

While practicing takeoffs and landings at night, the pilot departed his home base, landed at an intermediate airport, and then flew to a third airport. As the pilot taxied the airplane for the next departure, he saw a flicker of light in his peripheral vision, then looked aft, and saw a flame behind the aft cabin seats. He immediately shut down both engines and exited the airplane. He looked into the cabin through the aft-most, co-pilot side window and saw flames reaching up to about the bottom of the window. The airplane was subsequently consumed by the fire. Examination of the airplane's combustion-type heater, which was located in the area where the pilot reported seeing the fire, and which was operating at the time of the accident, revealed that it exhibited severe thermal damage throughout its entire assembly. None of the fire damage on the exterior of the heater could be identified as causal or associated with the initiation of a fire. The combustion heater was completely disassembled, and no point of origin for the fire was found. The airplane's maintenance records were onboard the airplane at the time of the fire, and were not recovered, therefore the maintenance history of the heater and its components could not be verified.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.