- Date
- September 4, 1985, 10:30 local (14:30 UTC)
- Place
- Everglades City, FL
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N8015XPiper PA-28-161
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19850904043309A
- Case key
- 31447
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 plt stated that while returning to venice from marathon,the acft started to lose power. He switched tanks but the problem continued. He notified fort myers apch he was having problems and when the power deteriorated to 1600 RPM, he elected to ditch the acft in chorolosee bay about 200 yards off shore in about 3 ft of water. After the acft was recovered from the bay, an eng teardown was performed, it revealed; the number one cyl intake value was tuliped, the cyl and top of the piston were clean indicating that a loss of compression and detonation had occurred in that cyl, explaining the partial loss of power experienced by the plt.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N8015X
- Reported as
- Piper PA-28-161
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 28-8216079
- Airframe hours
- 1,386
- Engine
- Lycoming O-320-D3G, 160 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Business · Part 91
- Registered owner
- Venice Flying Service
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Continuous airworthiness · August 12, 1984 · 36 hours before
- Departed
- MTH · Marathon, FL
- Destination
- VNC · Venice, FL
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
- 28
- Certificate
- Commercial
- Airplane ratings
- Multi-engine land, Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 2, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 713 total · 97 in this make and model · 689 as pilot in command · 169 in the last 90 days · 4 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 90° at 7 knots
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 82 °F, dew point 72 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
- Observed at
- FMY, 50 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.