- Date
- December 21, 1983, 12:44 local (17:44 UTC)
- Place
- Vero Beach, FL
- Injuries
- 1 serious, 1 minor
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Phase of flight
- Initial climb
- Aircraft
- N4095RPiper PA-32-300
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19831221062979A
- Case key
- 30959
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
Shortly after takeoff from rwy 29L the eng began to lose power. A turn back to the arpt was made when the eng quit & the acft struck trees & bushes about 350 ft short of rwy 11L. Teardown of the eng & fuel injector system revealed that the injector for the #5 cyl was totally plugged & the injector for the #6 cyl was 50% blocked. The last annual was on 10/7/83 & there was no evidence of the fuel injectors being cleaned.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N4095R
- Reported as
- Piper PA-32-300
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 32-4049
- Airframe hours
- 2,424
- Engine
- Lycoming IO-540-K1A5, 300 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Flight
- Instructional · Part 91
- Registered owner
- Robert V. Thomas
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · October 7, 1983 · 11 hours before
- Airport
- VRO · Vero Beach, runway 29L, 2,650 × 50 ft, asphalt
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 48
- Certificate
- Private
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Medical
- Class 2, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 395 total · 87 in this make and model · 1 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 250° at 4 knots
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 72 °F, dew point 75 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
- Observed at
- VRB
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.
Other investigations on N4095R · 1
Matched to the same aircraft by N-number and date.