Piper PA-34-200T N66AH accident near Covington, Tennessee

Probable cause

A fire of undetermined origin.

NTSB analysis

While practicing takeoffs and landings at night, the pilot departed his home base, landed at an intermediate airport, and then flew to a third airport. As the pilot taxied the airplane for the next departure, he saw a flicker of light in his peripheral vision, then looked aft, and saw a flame behind the aft cabin seats. He immediately shut down both engines and exited the airplane. He looked into the cabin through the aft-most, co-pilot side window and saw flames reaching up to about the bottom of the window. The airplane was subsequently consumed by the fire. Examination of the airplane's combustion-type heater, which was located in the area where the pilot reported seeing the fire, and which was operating at the time of the accident, revealed that it exhibited severe thermal damage throughout its entire assembly. None of the fire damage on the exterior of the heater could be identified as causal or associated with the initiation of a fire. The combustion heater was completely disassembled, and no point of origin for the fire was found. The airplane's maintenance records were onboard the airplane at the time of the fire, and were not recovered, therefore the maintenance history of the heater and its components could not be verified.

Text from the NTSB. Open the NTSB docket for NYC08LA144 for the full record.