ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 273358
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| Date: | Thursday 3 January 2002 |
| Time: | |
| Type: |  Piper PA-34-200T |
| Owner/operator: | |
| Registration: | ZS-JZR |
| MSN: | 34-7770169 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 4 |
| Aircraft damage: | Substantial |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | 1 nm North of Pietermaritzburg Aerodrome -
 South Africa
|
| Phase: | |
| Nature: | |
| Departure airport: | A farm aerodrome close to Standerton |
| Pietermaritzburg Aerodrome | |
| Investigating agency: | CAA S.A. |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
The aircraft was on a private flight from a farm aerodrome to Pietermaritzburg Aerodrome. The weather conditions were Instrument Meteorological Conditions and the pilot filed an Instrument Flight Rules flight plan. Approximately 17 minutes before their estimated time for the ORI- beacon at Pietermaritzburg, the fuel flow for the left-hand engine reduced from approximately 12.6 gall/hour to 8 gall/hour. The pilot selected the auxiliary electric fuel pump to the 'high'? setting and managed to keep the engine operational. During the final approach phase of the flight the left-hand engine failed and the pilot was forced to land the aircraft on school grounds in close proximity to the threshold of the runway. The aircraft was substantially damaged and one of the passengers was injured. The aircraft suffered several fuel flow defects with the left-hand engine prior to the accident flight, but attempts from two aircraft maintenance engineers to rectify the defect were not successful. They did not identify the loose tube nut in the fuel system of the left-hand engine. Besides this defect the aircraft was maintained according to the approved maintenance schedule of the aircraft. It had accumulated 4288.73 airframe hours at the time of the accident. The last Mandatory Periodic Inspection was certified on 31 May 2001 at 4201.4 hours and the aircraft operated 87.33 hours since the MPI. PROBABLE CAUSE: The tube nut that was not properly tightened caused air to enter the left-hand engine’s fuel system, which adversely affected the performance of the engine. The left-hand engine failed during the final approach phase of the flight due to an over-rich mixture condition with the auxiliary fuel pump operating on the “HIGH” setting. The aircraft was unable to maintain altitude in the landing configuration and the pilot crash-landed it on school grounds close to the threshold of the runway.
Accident investigation:
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Sources:
S.A. CAA
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
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