N7507P

On Thursday, September 2, 1993, at 1000 eastern daylight time, N7507P, a Piper PA-24-250, owned and operated by Donald Doran of Vero Beach, Florida, lost engine power shortly after takeoff and collided with the ground in a field at Caribou, Maine. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and a flight plan was not filed. The certificated commercial pilot and his passenger received minor injuries. The airplane was substantially damaged. The personal flight was being operated under 14 CFR 91 and was destined for Auburn-Lewiston, Maine.

According to the pilot, he had completed his pretakeoff checks and run-up successfully. He stated that after departing runway 29 at about 200 feet above the ground, the engine lost power. The pilot stated that the fuel selector was on the left tank and that he tried switching tanks to restart the engine, but he was unsuccessful. He made a forced landing in a field about a quarter mile from the airport.

According to the FAA Inspector who examined the wreckage, both auxiliary fuel tanks and the left main fuel tank were full and the right main fuel tank was empty. A witness at the accident site stated that he turned the fuel selector off after he smelled fuel, but he does not recall which tank the selector was on. The pilot had reported to the FAA that the tanks were topped off about a week prior to the accident, and that he had flown about 2.12 hours since the refuelling. The airplane's main tanks capacity is 30 gallons per tank, and the fuel consumption according to the FAA is 14.3 gph.

The engine was examined after the accident under the supervision of an FAA inspector. The engine was installed with a test club propeller and a slave carburetor in order to test run the engine. The engine was started and operated without difficulty. According to the FAA there was no evidence of mechanical malfunction that would have prevented the engine from operating.