Took me a minute to figure out what type is a "Piper Aero 3".
I also wonder why the state police and the FAA would be investigating rather than the NTSB.
State Police we’re probably the first on scene or tasked with taking over aircraft accidents from the local municipality.
FAA investigates stuff like this all the time. NTSB can choose whether to show up or not. They often base their reports on evidence gathered by the local FAA inspectors if they don’t travel to the scene.
They’ll note that in the preliminary and final report with wording like “NTSB did not travel in support of the investigation of this accident”.
At the accident I witnessed earlier this year, County Sheriff and VFD arrived first. Sheriff asked me for a written statement. I was able to write it with a note that I’m a CFI, which he said later was incredibly useful (more credibility than usual aircraft accident eyewitnesses).
I had to leave so I left contact information and stayed in touch with the Sheriff after saying goodbyes with the pilot and congratulating him on a successful off airport landing and commiserating with him a final time about the darn road sign screwing up a good thing. Told him to give me a call also if he or FAA needed anything. Forwarded him photos I took of wreckage locations before we pulled the wing and larger stuff off of the road.
FAA arrived a few hours later, according to the pilot later on, talked to the Sheriff, read all of the written statements including mine, asked the pilot very few questions, checked his credentials, and said that without significant property damage and no major injuries, and with statements from the pilot, myself, and everyone else that all matched materially, and the property owner unconcerned about the fence damage, the case would likely be closed fairly quickly.
No enforcement action or any problems for the pilot. They also make sure to help figure out who the private property owner is and make it clear that the pilot is liable for private property damage.
Mostly because it would be pretty difficult for the pilot to follow up, so the FAA facilitated that contact process with assistance from the local PD or Sheriff.
NTSB ROC requested the form called out in 49 CFR 830, the 6120.1 Form. Here:
https://www.ntsb.gov/Documents/6120_1web_Reader.pdf
They also asked the pilot to have a mechanic test certain things once the airplane was flatbed trucked to his hangar and provide them a copy of the report.
I don’t think he ever saw the NTSB person in the flesh. Just paperwork and the mechanic’s report since the pilot’s guess at what happened sounded reasonable to all of us.
But yes. To answer your question, both the Sheriff and the FAA did all the investigating at that event and NTSB wasn’t there at all that I’m aware of.
In fact without injuries or major property damage, neither FAA nor NTSB even wanted to look at the aircraft or impound the parts to see if the fuel pump really had failed themselves.
It met the accident definition in 49 CFR 830, but didn’t raise any concerns with NTSB that it required an in-person investigation apparently.
By the way...
Leaving it in the field overnight (negotiated with the property owner) got all my neighbors riled up on Nextdoor.com when they saw the wreck sitting there in the dark on their way home from work.
My wife saw it, and told me to get on there and explain what happened.
Everyone was happy the pilot walked away without a scratch on Nextdoor.
