Piper PA34 accident near Kuttawa, KY
On January 2, 2015, a Piper PA34 (airplane) was involved in an accident near Kuttawa, KY. 4 people died. Damage to the aircraft: substantial.
- Date
- January 2, 2015
- Place
- Kuttawa, KY
- Aircraft
- Piper PA34 · Airplane
- Injuries
- 4 fatal, 1 serious, 0 minor
- Damage
- Substantial
- Position
- 37.034°N, 88.169°W
- NTSB ID
- 20150103X93856
Official records · ERA15FA088
- Public docket: reports, statements and exhibits from the investigation
Air traffic control records
- Air Traffic Control Transcript: Transcript (PDF), on ntsb.gov
NTSB summary
HISTORY OF FLIGHTOn January 2, 2015, about 1755 central standard time, a Piper PA-34-200T, N81291, was substantially damaged when it impacted trees and terrain during a forced landing near Kuttawa, Kentucky. The commercial pilot, and three passengers were fatally injured, and another passenger was seriously injured. Night instrument meteorological conditions prevailed and an instrument flight rules (IFR) flight plan was filed for the personal flight which was conducted under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91. The flight departed Tallahassee Regional Airport (TLH), Tallahassee, Florida, around 1500, with the intended destination of Mount Vernon Airport (MVN), Mount Vernon, Illinois. According to the flight plan filed by the pilot, the proposed departure time was 1500, the estimated time en route was 3 hours and 12 minutes, and the airplane's estimated fuel endurance was 4 hours and 50 minutes. According to global positioning system (GPS) data, earlier in the day, the pilot performed a flight in the accident airplane that originated from Key West International Airport (EYW), Key West, Florida, around 1145 and terminated at TLH at 1425. According to a fuel receipt from EYW, the pilot had the airport linemen "top all tanks," prior to the departure at 1145. Then, according to a fuel receipt from TLH, the airplane received 67.7 gallons of 100LL aviation fuel prior to departing on the accident flight. In addition, an airport lineman stated that the airplane fuel tanks were "top[ped] off" at that time. According to air traffic control information provided by
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to properly set the left engine fuel selector before takeoff and to recognize the incorrect setting during the flight, which resulted in fuel starvation and a loss of engine power on both engines.
More accidents in KY
- Bombardier, Inc. CRJ-100, Aug 27, 2006
- Piper PA-31T2, Feb 17, 1982
- Cessna 401A, Aug 28, 2006
- Piper PA-32R-301T, Apr 3, 1988
- Piper PA-32R-301, Mar 22, 2004
Browse: Kentucky · Piper aircraft
Source: NTSB aviation accident database (US government, public domain). Findings may be preliminary or later revised by the NTSB. Not a complete global record.
