According to the pilot, he purchased the Piper PA-28R-200 in April 2021, adding the airplane had not flown for 22 years.
He hired a mechanic to complete an extensive annual inspection, and the mechanic endorsed the airplane’s logbooks on March 1, 2023. The pilot planned on flying the airplane back to San Diego, California.
On the day of the accident, he flew from Bowman Field Airport (KLOU) in Louisville, Kentucky, to Madisonville Regional Airport (2I0) in Madisonville, Kentucky, which was about 97 nautical miles.
He topped off the fuel tanks at 2I0 and visited a friend in town for a couple of hours before departing for Lebanon Springfield Airport-George Hoerter Field (6I2) in Springfield, Kentucky.
About five minutes after he departed 2I0, at an altitude of 1,600 feet mean sea level, the engine started to “lose power and slow down.” He did not remember if the engine was sputtering, he just remembered the engine was losing power.
He knew he could not make it back to the airport, so he set up for a forced landing to a field near Slaughters, Kentucky.
The airplane landed hard, and all three landing gear separated from their mounts. The main landing gear were forced up through the wings, which substantially damaged the wing ribs and main spar.
Examination of the engine revealed that, when electrical power was applied to the electric fuel pump, fuel leaked from the fuel strainer bowl. The thumb wheel, which secured the fuel strainer bowl to the firewall, was loose and not secured with safety wire, which allowed fuel to exit the fuel strainer bowl.
The fuel system forward of the fuel strainer was examined and no fuel was noted up to the fuel nozzles.
The fuel strainer bowl was secured by a mechanic and when the fuel pump was powered up fuel flowed from the strainer bowl, through the fuel lines, to the fuel nozzles.
The fuel nozzles were examined, and the No. 3 nozzle had a small piece of unidentified material in it and the No. 4 nozzle was totally clogged. The Nos. 1 and 2 nozzles were found clear of debris.
Probable Cause: Maintenance personnel’s failure to secure the fuel strainer bowl with safety wire, which resulted in the fuel strainer bowl leaking and starving the engine of fuel. Also causal was the obstruction of two fuel injector nozzles.
To download the final report. Click here. This will trigger a PDF download to your device.
This March 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.
Did the A&P hold an IA?
If my memory is correct, the Arrow gear drops automatically unless an override lever between the front seats is lifted. That gear did as it was supposed to do. It may be that the new owner was not aware of this feature of the Cherokee Arrow.
The so-called A&P mechanic that supposedly performed that annual inspection and signed it off with his name and A&P number in the logbook certifying that that aircraft was airworthy needs to be sued in federal court. According to the FAA, an A&P is responsible for anything he signs his name to, specifically when it pertains to aircraft maintenance. Alongside the civil suit, a criminal charge of criminal negligence, along with several other criminal charges, needs to be entertained as well. He’s damn lucky no one was injured or killed, because the penalties would be far higher.
The mechanic that did the alleged inspection on that airplane needs to be put in jail for at least five years, to give him time to rehash all the cheap tricks he did to the poor man that bought that airplane, then trusted that mechanic to do a good thorough job of inspecting the fuel system and saying it was airworthy !!! Then have the edacity to charge that man for wrecking his airplane.. No excuse will be heard, use the same thoughtless reasoning the mechanic used, and sentence this person for at least five years behind bars. This is why this stuff continuous, because it can, and no one does anything about it, common AOPA,,, step up to the plate !!! Its all our business,,,
I don’t know what the field looked like from the air…but it brings up the age-old conundrum for retracts: In an emergency “off-airport” landing, do I drop the gear or land on the belly?
I agree this well-seasoned pilot did a great job: He opted to put them down; most of the obvious damage was the result of the gear absorbing the impact. All things considered, the prop strike would’ve happened regardless. But he survived unscathed.
From my good buddies at AOPA:
“If the aircraft has retractable landing gear, should it be up or down for an off-airport landing? It depends. If the landing spot is an empty eight-lane highway, drop the gear. But it’s not always so clear-cut. If landing on soft ground or water the gear might dig in and cause the airplane to flip over. On the other hand, it might absorb some of the energy of a crash, or help stop the aircraft if space is limited.”
Something you need to consider.
Horrible headline…..physics/gravity brought the aircraft back to terra firma….not knowing all the details ….and the NTSB..states debris found in FI. Nozzles …. aircraft not flown for 22 years….I will suggest that between the pilot and the aviation technician…plenty of blame to share…..again not knowing all the details…. horrible headline…does not reflect the truth of the situation….and this is an opinion…it is to simplistic to state mechanic brought the aircraft down….if anything……human behavior caused this…by all parties involved….
Ahhh Yes…a “fixer-upper” airplane. I restored a Cessna 172F from 2021 thru late 2022 that sat for 18 Years in a T-hangar. (I am an A&P on Experimental A/C only; built an RV-7A in 2008 among other projects) Long story short…My Certified A&P supervised me and the restoration in detail to make sure that it was airworthy in the end. I had to replace the engine of course and went thru an Annual Inspection with dozens of Service Bulletins (SBs) and Aircraft Directives (ADs) from 1964 to the present–Ugh! What a pain in the neck. I had to document everything that we did. The fuel system was questionable at first but we got it cleaned up and serviceable. I safety-wired everything (form Cessna service manuals) and documented this in an email to my A&P–which he personally checked and signed it off. Lessons learned…double checking the work by another set of eyeballs is good quality control.
Let me also add an observation from the FAA photo provided in the article that the fuel strainer in question was never serviced. There is corrosion and aging on the threads and locking nut indicating that it was never touched.
That oversight might be OK on your lawnmower, but not on an airplane. Decert the mechanic? He endangered human life and destroyed an expensive GA toy. Up go the insurance rates. What’s the answer here? Two mechanics, one working on the machine and one performing continuous inspection of work observation?
Regards/J
Excellent job in the off airport landing! Wish all were that will done!