ATL95LA102 · Burchfield ROSE PARAKEET ROSE PARAK
Burchfield ROSE PARAKEET ROSE PARAK · Accident: loss of control in flight during takeoff
From Tuscaloosa National Airport (TCL) to Merkel Field Sylacauga Municipal Airport (SCD)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL95LA102
- 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
Burchfield ROSE PARAKEET ROSE PARAK
- Aircraft type
- Burchfield ROSE PARAKEET
- 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
- N2125
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tuscaloosa National Airport (TCL)To Merkel Field Sylacauga Municipal Airport (SCD), Sylacauga, 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT STATED THAT HE HAD BEEN INVOLVED IN AN INCIDENT WITH THE AIRCRAFT DURING A FLIGHT THE PREVIOUS WEEK. HE SAID THAT THE AIRCRAFT VEERED OFF THE RUNWAY AND STRUCK A RUNWAY SIGN DURING A LANDING ATTEMPT. HE SAID THE ONLY VISIBLE DAMAGE TO THE AIRPLANE WAS A SCUFFED MARK ON THE LEADING EDGE OF THE LEFT LOWER WING. HE DID NOT HAVE AN AIRFRAME MECHANIC LOOK AT THE AIRPLANE PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT FLIGHT, AND THE ACCIDENT FLIGHT WAS THE FIRST FLIGHT AFTER THE INCIDENT. DURING THE ACCIDENT FLIGHT, HE SAID THAT EVERYTHING WAS NORMAL UNTIL ABOUT 200 FEET AGL. HE SAID THE AIRCRAFT ABRUPTLY ROLLED TO THE LEFT,AND YAWED TO THE RIGHT. HE SAID THAT HE COULD MAINTAIN STRAIGHT FLIGHT WITH FULL DISPLACEMENT OF THE CONTROLS TO THE RIGHT, BUT THAT HE COULD NOT TURN TO THE RIGHT. HE MADE A SHALLOW LEFT TURN TO RETURN TO THE AIRPORT, BUT COULD NOT ARREST THE TURN WITHOUT REDUCING POWER TO REDUCE TORQUE. AFTER REDUCING POWER, HE COULD NOT MAKE IT BACK TO THE AIRPORT, AND CRASHED INTO THE TERRAIN SHORT OF THE AIRPORT. EXAMINATION REVEALED THAT THERE WAS AN OLD FRACTURE IN THE LEFT LOWER WING LEADING EDGE BOW, AND PIECES OF THE BOW WERE MISSING.
Probable cause
The pilot's inadequate preflight. Factors in the accident were the previous wing damage, and the obstruction of air flow over the aileron.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL95LA102
- Event ID
- 20001207X03603
- Case number
- ATL95LA102
- 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: f8066be46718f6bd1cba44789b6c1908a8cd4a4ad97a3f32415f5bb7f1f5c26f; retrieved 2026-09-21T13:15:39.051Z.