MIA96LA231 · Piper PA-22-108
Piper PA-22-108 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From 82J to Talladega Municipal Airport (ASN)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA96LA231
- 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-22-108
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-22
- 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
- N984WB
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 82JTo Talladega Municipal Airport (ASN), Talladega, 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
- Tree(s)
- 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
- Fuel system, carburetor › Contamination, other than water
- Fuel system, carburetor › Contamination, water
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot stated that he performed a preflight of the airplane, which included checking each fuel tank twice and the fuel strainer three times for contaminants. He stated he only observed a few drops of water during the first sample from the fuel strainer. He also stated that he performed an engine run-up before takeoff with no discrepancies noted. He applied full power to takeoff. The flight climbed to about 150 to 200 feet above ground level. When the flight was about 3/4 down the runway, the engine experienced a total loss of power. The pilot then initiated a descent for a forced landing, and the airplane collided with trees about 1/2 mile south of the runway. Postcrash examination of the engine revealed water and debris contamination in the carburetor. The carburetor was bench tested, which revealed the fuel flow in pounds per hour to be less than the engine manufacturers limits. Review of the engine logbook revealed no entry to indicate that the carburetor had been overhauled since it was manufactured in February 1961. The FAA-PMA produced a service bulletin (non-mandatory) which stated that the carburetor must be overhauled when the engine is overhauled or 10 years, which ever is first.
Probable cause
loss of engine power during the initial climb due to contamination in the carburetor. Trees in the emergency landing area were a related factor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA96LA231
- Event ID
- 20001208X06790
- Case number
- MIA96LA231
- 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: dc70ff79c5c1d94edb62d7e4b60c892a070f788ea4f9d0ad18f6bdb1e135319f; retrieved 2026-09-21T21:35:29.961Z.