ATL94FA046 · Piper PA-24-250
Piper PA-24-250 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From 0A8 to 21A · Alabaster, AL
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL94FA046
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 2 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-24-250
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-24
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N6085P
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 0A8To 21A · Alabaster, AL
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Initial climb
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Fuel starvation
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Fuel tank selector position, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT HAD PURCHASED THE AIRPANE 11 DAYS PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT, AND HAD 9 HOURS OF FLIGHT EXPERIENCE IN THE AIRPLANE. AFTER DEPARTING RUNWAY 27, WITNESSES HEARD THE PILOT REPORT ON UNICOM THAT HE WAS RETURNING TO THE AIRPORT WITH AN UNSPECIFIED EMERGENCY. THE AIRPLANE WAS OBSERVED IN A STEEP LEFT BANK AND NOSE DOWN ATTITUDE JUST PRIOR TO IMPACT WITH THE TERRAIN WEST OF THE DEPARTURE END OF RUNWAY 27. THE AIRPLANE FUEL SELECTORS WERE FOUND IN THE TIP TANK SELECTED POSITION. THE FAA-APPROVED AIRPLANE FLIGHT MANUAL SUPPLEMENT FOR INSTALLATION OF BRITTAIN INDUSTRIES WING TIP FUEL TANKS ON PIPER PA-24-250 AIRCRAFT STATES THAT WING TIP TANK FUEL IS TO BE USED IN LEVEL FLIGHT ONLY.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO ASSURE THAT THE FUEL SELECTOR WAS IN THE PROPER POSITION FOR TAKEOFF.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL94FA046
- Event ID
- 20001206X00579
- Case number
- ATL94FA046
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 9cca28f33b5d68da6a96cd9728057a317031ea940af23dc4682aa55341b4ca64; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:15:33.308Z.