- Date
- January 10, 1989, 19:12 local (Jan 11, 1989, 01:12 UTC)
- Place
- Rose Hill, MS
- Injuries
- 1 serious
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Approach
- Aircraft
- N9378NPiper PA-28R-200
- Weather
- Instrument (IMC) · Night/dark
- Status
- Completed · report January 22, 1991
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19890110025199A
- Case key
- 32383
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Probable cause
Loss of electrical power for an undetermined reason and fuel starvation from improper use of the fuel selector. Factors related to the accident were: night and adverse weather conditions.
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 rprtd that during an instrument arrival at night, he encountered electrical problems & was having difficulty receiving the ILS signal. He abandoned the apch & finally had to use his flashlight to fly the acft. Subsequently, the eng lost power & the acft crashed during a forced landing in poor wx conds at night. After the acdnt, the master sw was turned on & the fuel pumps, radios & electrically powered flt & nav instruments operated with no evidence of a failure or malfunction. The airport ILS sys was flt tested by the FAA & was found to be within normal limits. A check of the intact fuel sys revealed there was two quarts of fuel in the right tank & 9 quarts in the left tank. The fuel selector was found positioned to the right tank. Also, no fuel was found in the injector lines to the cylinders.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N9378N
- Reported as
- Piper PA-28R-200
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 28R35087
- Airframe hours
- 1,254
- Engine
- Lycoming IO-360-C1C, 200 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Business · Part 91
- Operator
- Sexton, Charles W.
- Registered owner
- Sexton Janitorial Systems Inc
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · June 13, 1988 · 57 hours before
- Departed
- OA6 · Gastonia, NC
- Destination
- MEI · Meridian, MS
- 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
- 54
- Certificate
- Private
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 3, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 976 total · 271 in this make and model · 864 as pilot in command · 35 in the last 90 days · 5 in the last 30 days · 5 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Instrument (IMC) · Night/dark
- Wind
- 40° at 7 knots
- Visibility
- 2 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 600 ft overcast
- Temperature
- 50 °F, dew point 48 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
- Observed at
- MEI, 20 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.