ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 166427
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| Date: | Tuesday 6 May 2014 |
| Time: | 21:30 |
| Type: |  Piper PA-32-300 Cherokee Six |
| Owner/operator: | Smith Christopher |
| Registration: | N5222S |
| MSN: | 32-40917 |
| Year of manufacture: | 1970 |
| Total airframe hrs: | 3055 hours |
| Engine model: | Lycoming IO-540 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 2 |
| Aircraft damage: | Substantial |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Fairfield County Airport (KLHQ), Lancaster, Ohio -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | Approach |
| Nature: | Private |
| Departure airport: | Lancaster, OH (LHQ) |
| Lancaster, OH (LHQ) | |
| Investigating agency: | NTSB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
The pilot and pilot-rated passenger were conducting night touch-and-go landings and were in the traffic pattern for the second landing when the engine experienced a partial loss of power. The pilot advanced the throttle lever to increase the engine rpm, but the engine did not respond. The pilot moved the throttle lever, mixture control, and fuel selector and turned on the fuel pump in an attempt to troubleshoot the loss of power. Unable to restore engine power, the pilot made an emergency landing in a field. A postaccident examination revealed that the fuel selector valve was in the OFF position. The right tip fuel tank did not contain any fuel. The other three fuel tanks were mostly full of fuel.
Federal Aviation Administration Airworthiness Directive (AD) 77-12-01, applicable to the accident airplane, was issued on June 10, 1977, to prevent a fuel system malfunction and a possible power interruption. AD 77-12-01 requires regular inspection of the fuel selector valve; it was most recently completed during the annual inspection, about 5 months before the accident, and no anomalies were noted. A postaccident engine run revealed that the engine operated with no anomalies. The fuel selector valve was obviously worn and degraded to the point that it would not control the fuel flow. The detents were very worn and fuel continued to flow through the selector valve even when between detents and in the OFF position. Thus, the loss of engine power was likely a result of the deteriorated fuel selector valve, which allowed fuel to feed only from the right tip tank until it was exhausted. It is also likely that the deterioration of the fuel selector valve was overlooked during the last annual inspection.
Probable Cause: Fuel starvation due to the deterioration of the fuel selector valve, which allowed fuel to be fed from only the right tip tank. Contributing to the accident was the inadequate annual inspection, which failed to detect the deteriorated valve.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
NTSB
FAA register: http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNum_Results.aspx?NNumbertxt=5222S
Location
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 21-May-2014 03:49 | Geno | Added |
| 21-Dec-2016 19:28 | ASN Update Bot | Updated [Time, Damage, Category, Investigating agency] |
| 29-Nov-2017 14:22 | ASN Update Bot | Updated [Operator, Nature, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
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