System Component Failure Or Malfunction (Powerplant), Perkasa Flight School (PA-28-161 PK-PBH); Near Tunggul Wulung Airport, Cilacap KNKT.16.10.35.04

The Piper PA28-161 Warrior II, registration PK-PBH on 19 October 2016 was being operated by Perkasa Flying School on a dual flight training touch and go exercise in Tunggul Wulung Airport (WAHL) Cilacap, Indonesia.

Several days before the accident the student pilot had injured to left hand wrist and the student pilot did not report the injury to the flying school nor the flight instructor. The ‘Internal Cockpit’ checklist, the pilot required to ensure the fuel selector valve was selected to the Left Tank. Subsequently, the ‘Before Take-off’ checklist required the pilots to move the fuel selector to the Right Tank. The injury impaired the ability to operate the fuel selector as required by the checklist.

At 0030 UTC (0730 LT), the student pilot conducted pre-flight check to the aircraft. The student pilot stated that the aircraft was normal and the fuel uplifted was about 190 litres.

At 0831 LT, the aircraft was lining-up and took off from runway 31. After the aircraft airborne, about 300 feet the instructor pilot noticed the engine sound was spooling down. The instructor pilot advanced the throttle to increase the engine power however, the engine RPM did not increase. Thereafter, the instructor pilot also reached the fuel selector valve with the intention to change the fuel selector valve position but the engine RPM continued spooling down and the engine quit.

The instructor pilot decided to conduct the force landing on an open area. The instructor pilot took the aircraft control and declared mayday due to engine quit with the intention to make emergency landing. The controller noticed the aircraft turn right until disappeared behind the trees. During descend to the open area, the instructor pilot attempted to restart the engine without success.

The aircraft landed on paddy field about 1.3 Nm from the beginning of runway 31, on the north of the airport. Both pilots survived and self-evacuated the aircraft. The aircraft was substantially damage.

 The engine ground run test found that if the selection of fuel selector performed more than 3 seconds after the engine hesitation, the engine would remain hesitation and quit because of the engine has been decelerating significantly and the engine unable to suck the fuel from the carburettor. The engine ground run test also found that after the fuel in the engine fuel line system was exhausted, the engine restart attempt would be success after minimum of 5 restart attempts.

The investigation concluded the contributing factors in this occurrence are:

1. The injured left wrist arm might have result to improper selection of the fuel selector valve and led to insufficient fuel to the engine during the take-off power resulted in the engine hesitation and quit.

 2. The engine recovery and restart attempt were unsuccessful that might be due to the time availability and the insufficient aircraft altitude.

The KNKT had not received any safety action taken. The KNKT issued safety recommendations to the flying school to address safety issues identified in this report.