ATL96LA003 · Piper PA-25-235
Kiwi Sky Signs Piper PA-25-235 · Accident: loss of engine power during takeoff
From No airport to AL15
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL96LA003
- 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
Piper PA-25-235
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-25
- 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
- N6674Z
- Operator
- Kiwi Sky Signs
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From No airportTo AL15
- 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 engine power
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Gulf Shores, AL, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
The pilot stated that moments after lift-off, the engine began running roughly. At an altitude of about 20 feet, the engine lost power. The pilot stated that the airplane was headed in the direction of a row of trees, so he negotiated a 90 degree left turn to avoid the obstructions. Airspeed dissipated, and the airplane settled to the ground. The landing gear was broken off during ground impact. During an investigation, the propeller was replaced, and an operational check of the engine was performed. The engine operated in accordance with the manufacturer's operating specifications.
Probable cause
Loss of engine power for undetermined reason(s). A factor relating to the accident was: the proximity of high obstructions (trees) to the emergency landing area.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL96LA003
- Event ID
- 20001207X04632
- Case number
- ATL96LA003
- 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: 9e0a8582e2f5c895fd8b5fcbb9038a69bf91ab0d39698210df5e0ef9e17f6b80; retrieved 2026-09-22T23:11:22.428Z.