ATL94LA133 · Pilatus PC-6/B1-H2
Freefall Express Pilatus PC-6/B1-H2 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From 5W4 to P K Airpark (5W4)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL94LA133
- 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
- 0 · 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
Pilatus PC-6/B1-H2
- Aircraft type
- Pilatus PC-6
- 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
- N111FX
- Operator
- Freefall Express
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 5W4To P K Airpark (5W4), NC
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, 100-hour inspection, improper
- Fuel injection control, linkage › Disengaged
- Fuel injection control, linkage › Not safetied
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT WAS PERFORMING THE INITIAL TAKEOFF, WHEN HE OBSERVED A LOSS OF POWER, ASSOCIATED WITH A TORQUE INDICATION OF ZERO. HE FORCE LANDED THE AIRCRAFT IN A WOODED AREA WHEN HE COULD NOT MAKE AN OPEN FIELD. A POST ACCIDENT INSPECTION OF THE ENGINE REVEALED THAT THE FUEL CONTROL UNIT ARM WAS LOOSE, AND THE LOCK WIRE WAS NOT IN PLACE. THE ARM WAS POSITIONED SO THAT A MAXIMUM POWER DEMAND FROM THE THROTTLE WOULD CORRESPOND TO AN IDLE POWER DEMAND AT THE FUEL CONTROL. THE ENGINE UNDERWENT A 100 HOUR INSPECTION, BY COMPANY MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL, 8 DAYS PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT. THE INSPECTION CHECKLIST CALLED FOR EXAMINING THE FUEL CONTROL LINKAGE FOR SECURITY.
Probable cause
THE IMPROPER INSPECTION OF THE AIRCRAFT BY COMPANY MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL, WHICH RESULTED IN AN UNSAFETIED AND DISCONNECTED FUEL CONTROL ARM.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL94LA133
- Event ID
- 20001206X01662
- Case number
- ATL94LA133
- 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: 2177800618ffa8e12ff02ac4af339b80ef56bf70175074625204fa52d45ff390; retrieved 2026-09-21T22:34:49.432Z.