- Date
- January 23, 1984, 02:09 local (08:09 UTC)
- Place
- New Orleans, LA
- Injuries
- 1 fatal
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N2115DPiper PA-32RT-300
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Night/dark
- Status
- Completed
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19840123002519A
- Case key
- 21101
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Sequence of events
NTSB’s coding before 2008: each occurrence and phase of flight, and the causes and factors under it. The codes are defined in NTSB’s coding manual.
Analysis
The eng quit as the acft was descending for an approach into moisant arpt & the acft was ditched in lake pontchartrain. Examination revealed that the magneto distributor block was severely cracked & both sets of breaker points were displaced away from the breaker cam. There was evidence of excessive heat buildup in the magneto. The rotating magneto shaft rear bearing was 'locked up' & had caused the bearing retainer to spin within the distributor block. The inner race had apparently welded itself onto the shaft due to excessive heat buildup in the bearing.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N2115D
- Reported as
- Piper PA-32RT-300 (PA-32RT-30)
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 70985029
- Airframe hours
- 4,084
- Engine
- Lycoming IO-540-K1G5D, 300 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Part 135
- Registered owner
- Roger B. Roshing
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- 100 hour · January 20, 1984 · 15 hours before
- Departed
- THL · Tallahassee, FL
- Destination
- MSY · New Orleans, LA
- Flight plan
- IFR
- Airport
- NGW · Lakefront
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 43
- Certificates
- Commercial, Flight instructor
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land, Multi-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 2, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 7,650 total · 250 in this make and model · 6,750 as pilot in command · 225 in the last 90 days · 5 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Night/dark
- Wind
- 120° at 14 knots
- Visibility
- 7 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 5,000 ft broken
- Temperature
- -0 °F, dew point -0 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
- Observed at
- NEW, 9 nm away
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.