FTW99LA036 · Piper PA-28-160
Piper PA-28-160 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From Majors Airport (GVT) to Bill & Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field (LIT)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW99LA036
- 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-28-160
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N5087W
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Majors Airport (GVT), Greenville, TXTo Bill & Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field (LIT), Little Rock, AR
- 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
- Minor
Cause areas
- Exhaust system, baffle › Loose
- Exhaust system, manifold/pipe › Blocked(partial)
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The engine lost partial power during the initial takeoff climb. The pilot stated that the pre-flight inspection and before takeoff run-up revealed no discrepancies. As the airplane departed runway 17, the pilot realized that the airplane was 'climbing slower than usual.' The airplane was crossing the departure end of the runway, at 150 feet agl, when 'the engine speed dropped noticeably.' The engine power continued to decay until it was at idle, the airspeed continued to drop, and consequently, the airplane began to descend. The post accident engine examination revealed that the internal muffler baffle was not secured to its attaching point and was blocking the engine exhaust pipe/manifold. A review of maintenance logbooks and evidence collected during the investigation indicates that airworthiness directive 70-16-05, which mandates a visual inspection of the exterior and interior of the muffler, was not complied with.
Probable cause
The partial loss of engine power due to a blocked muffler exhaust pipe/manifold as a result of a loose internal baffle. Factors were the improper maintenance by other maintenance personnel and the lack of suitable terrain for the forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW99LA036
- Event ID
- 20001211X11431
- Case number
- FTW99LA036
- 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: c7192483fcfe0bcd853db93bf4d7e5daeab20cfe4017a47b808ea1db18c8b344; retrieved 2026-09-21T11:18:25.678Z.