ATL93FA066 · Piper PA-38-112
Tomahawk Flyers Piper PA-38-112 · Accident: in flight collision with object during initial climb
From RYY to RYY
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL93FA066
- 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
- 2 · 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-38-112
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-38
- 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
- N4218E
- Operator
- Tomahawk Flyers
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From RYYTo RYY
- 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
- In flight collision with object
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Proper climb rate, not attained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A STUDENT PILOT & CERTIFIED FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR (CFI) WERE ON A NIGHT TRAINING FLIGHT, PRACTICING TOUCH-AND-GO LANDINGS. ACCORDING TO TWO WITNESSES AT THE AIRPORT, THE FLIGHT TOUCHED DOWN NORMALLY & BEGAN TO TAKEOFF AGAIN. THEY REPORTED THE INITIAL CLIMB APPEARED NORMAL UNTIL THE AIRPLANE LEVELED OFF ABOUT 150 TO 200 FEET ABOVE THE GROUND. THEY CONTINUED TO WATCH THE AIRPLANE UNTIL IT COLLIDED WITH TREES & A UTILITY POLE ABOUT ONE MILE FROM THE DEPARTURE END OF RUNWAY 27. THE AIRPLANE THEN FELL INTO THE FRONT YARD OF A SINGLE FAMILY DWELLING. REPORTEDLY, THE ENGINE SOUNDED NORMAL UNTIL THE AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH TREES. EXAMINATION OF THE AIRPLANE FAILED TO DISCLOSE A MECHANICAL MALFUNCTION OR COMPONENT FAILURE. A REVIEW OF WEIGHT & BALANCE INFORMATION DISCLOSED THE AIRPLANE WAS LOADED ABOUT 100 POUNDS OVER ITS MAXIMUM GROSS WEIGHT LIMIT, WHEN IT TOOK OFF ABOUT 23 MINUTES BEFORE THE ACCIDENT. THE CFI HAD A TOTAL FLIGHT TIME OF ABOUT 375 HOURS.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR (CFI) TO ASSURE THAT A PROPER RATE OF CLIMB WAS ESTABLISHED AFTER TAKEOFF TO MAINTAIN PROPER CLEARANCE ABOVE THE TERRAIN/OBSTACLES. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: DARKNESS AND THE EXCESSIVE WEIGHT CONDITION OF THE AIRPLANE AT TAKEOFF.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL93FA066
- Event ID
- 20001211X11908
- Case number
- ATL93FA066
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1993-03-31.
- API snapshot SHA-256: a4aa4a578bcc3a973b5806742c1c4b8709ccd3045a6026f9abc1b88480c436a9; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:39:00.806Z.