- Date
- October 4, 1985, 09:06 local (13:06 UTC)
- Place
- Jacksonville, FL
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Minor damage
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N8614NPiper PA-32-300
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19851004074059I
- Case key
- 31516
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the incident.
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
After departure flight experienced loss of engine power and visible smoke coming from the windshield exhaust ducts. The engine subsequently failed but the pilot was able to regain power and return to the airport for a normal landing. Post landing inspection of the aircraft revealed an exhaust pipe had cracked and caused the lower engine cowling to catch fire just forward of the engin air intake. The exhaist had cracked where a previous repair had been made due to a previous crack. The repair was improper due to the weld not fully penetrating the cracked metal.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N8614N
- Reported as
- Piper PA-32-300
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 32-7140006
- Airframe hours
- 2,900
- Engine
- Lycoming IO-540-K1A5, 300 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Minor damage
- Fire
- In-Flight
- Flight
- Part 135
- Operator
- Chapman Air,Inc.
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- 100 hour · September 10, 1985 · 44 hours before
- Departed
- JAX · Jacksonville, FL
- Destination
- ORL · Orlando, FL
- Flight plan
- IFR
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
- 30
- Certificates
- Flight instructor, Airline transport
- Airplane ratings
- Multi-engine land, Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 1, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 8,060 total · 2,000 in this make and model · 7,970 as pilot in command · 15 in the last 90 days · 1 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 200° at 3 knots
- Visibility
- 5 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 900 ft broken
- Temperature
- 75 °F, dew point 73 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
- Observed at
- JAX
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.