On Jan. 24, 2023, about 16:42 eastern standard time, a Piper PA-28-140 was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident near Buford, Georgia. The flight instructor and a student pilot were not injured.
The flight instructor reported that she and the student pilot practiced several maneuvers in the local area and were returning to their home airport. She asked the student to switch fuel tanks, since it was time to do so.
Shortly thereafter, the engine lost all power.
She confirmed that the throttle was full forward and the mixture was full rich.
Unable to reach an airport due to their altitude, the flight instructor performed a forced landing to a local highway. During the landing, the airplane’s nose landing gear collapsed and the right wing was damaged.
An inspector with the FAA responded to the accident site and examined the wreckage. He reported that the right wing was substantially damaged.
The wreckage was recovered to a salvage facility for further examination.
The position of the cockpit fuel selector handle prior to the accident could not be determined.
The engine was attached to the airframe and the engine mount was undamaged, therefore a test run of the engine was attempted. A visual examination of the engine revealed no holes or breaches in the engine case, and internal continuity of the drivetrain was confirmed by rotating the engine crankshaft manually. The propeller remained attached to the engine, however, the blade tips were visibly bent. The spark plugs were removed and exhibited light brown color and normal wear when compared to a Champion Check-A-Plug chart.
The engine was started and ran without hesitation or stumbling from idle to about 2,100 rpm. The test run was concluded after two minutes.
An examination of the fuel system revealed the right-wing fuel tank was breached from impact forces and was empty of fuel. The fuel cap was secured and in place. The cap seal was supple.
The left-wing fuel tank was intact and was empty of fuel. The fuel cap was secured and in place. The cap seal was supple.
The gascolator contained about 2 ounces of clean, blue fuel. No water was observed.
When the throttle arm was actuated, the accelerator pump expelled liquid and water droplets were observed on the throttle plate. The carburetor was removed for examination. After partial disassembly, the composite floats and other internal components were observed to be undamaged. The carburetor bowl contained blue fuel and about 1 ounce of cloudy water.
The flight instructor reported the preflight inspection of the airplane prior to the accident flight was unremarkable and no water was observed in the fuel system.
Probable Cause: Water contamination in the fuel system that was not observed during the preflight inspection, resulting in a total loss of engine power and forced landing.
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This January 2023 accident report is provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. Published as an educational tool, it is intended to help pilots learn from the misfortunes of others.
These situations defy credulity in half-$million airborne toys. Just unbelievable.
I experienced a similar event with water contamination in my fuel a number of years ago. The event happened late in the afternoon after departing a southern California air port. My preflight did not detect any water in any of the fuel drains on the wings or in the carb fuel bowel strainer. Everything looked great! The aircraft was an older Cessna 150. Takeoff was uneventful until after about 20 minutes into the flight. After making a left and right 45 degree tight turns my engine began to lose power rapidly! The engine was sputtering and was trying to quit! Carb heat was pulled and my immediate response was to pump the throttle to keep the engine running. By pumping the throttle I kept the engine running just barley! About 1200 RPM with constant sputtering was the best I could get out of the engine. As one can imagine altitude is not maintained with that power setting! Mags were checked and did not improve the situation at all. My other big issue was my low altitude! I was only about 500 AGL when this hole issue started. Why so low you ask? that’s another story! There was not place to land within my view but luckily to my left there was a shallow canyon about 50 feet deep and 200 feet wide that dropped to the coast about a two miles to the west. Since I was sinking and unable to maintain altitude with such a low RPM I moved the Cessna over the canyon and continued to pump the throttle to maintain what RPM the engine would produce. Luckily for me my sink rate some what matched the canyons elevation drop down to the coast and to sea level. The couple of minutes that passed while I flew down that canyon pumping that throttle and attempting to keep myself airborne was a harrowing experience! As I popped out of the canyon and out over the beach on the California coast I was no more than 100 feet AGL! But the engine RPMs had climbed to about 1600 RPMs and this gave a lower sink rate! Every minute that passed I was able to get another 100 RPMs out of the engine and maintain altitude. I turned North up the coast thinking I could land on a beach if necessary. The engine began to smooth out some but the best RPMs I could get out of the engine was 1900! Twenty miles to the North of me was an airport just off the coast about a two miles to the East and up about 1100 feet off sea level. Darkness was setting in as I flew north at about 55 mph in slow flight with first notch of flaps in. I was able to gain altitude as my RPMs incresed and by the time I made the airport I had 2200 RPMs. I landed in darkness still with a rough engine but I was down and safe!
Water was in the wing fuel tanks. The way the Cessna sits is with a tilt toward the tail. Water had accumulated in the very aft of the tanks and fuel drains are a bit forward of the rear of the tanks thus the water can not be drained from the tank via the fuel drain even when there is a low spot designed into the tank! My tight turns mixed water and fuel together and was fed into the carburetor and producing a almost stalled engine if not for throttle pumping which saved my bacon! Level your aircraft and do a drain, it may save your life and aircraft!
Humm, no water in gasolator but in the carburetor?? That sounds strange to me??
Early in my training, I was taught to be ready to immediately switch back to the previous tank if any change in the engine was heard or felt. I don’t recall ever having to do this, but it was always in my routine.