ATL93LA147 · Piper PA-22-108/U PA-22-108/
Piper PA-22-108/U PA-22-108/ · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From Martin Campbell Field (1A3) to Asheville Regional Airport (AVL)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL93LA147
- 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/U 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
- N5061Z
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Martin Campbell Field (1A3), COPPERHILL, TNTo Asheville Regional Airport (AVL), Asheville, NC
- 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)
- 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 · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A LAYER OF FOG PREVENTED AN EARLY TAKEOFF AS PLANNED BY THE PILOT. HE REFUELED THE AIRPLANE WITH 11 GALLONS OF AVIATION FUEL AND COMPLETED A PREFLIGHT INSPECTION. AFTER THE FOG CONDITION IMPROVED, THE PILOT COMPLETED A RUNUP AND ATTEMPTED A TAKEOFF. AS THE AIRPLANE ACCELERATED DOWN THE RUNWAY, THE PILOT ABORTED THE TAKEOFF DUE TO ENGINE PROBLEMS. HE RETURNED AND ATTEMPTED TO CORRECT THE ROUGH ENGINE CONDITION BY COMPLETING ANOTHER RUNUP PROCEDURE. IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE NORMAL RUNUP PROCEDURE WAS COMPLETED, WHICH INCLUDED THE CARBURETOR HEAT SYSTEM, THE PILOT ATTEMPTED ANOTHER TAKEOFF. AS THE AIRPLANE CLIMBED THROUGH 200 FEET AGL, THE ENGINE DEVELOPED A ROUGH CONDITION AGAIN. THE PILOT ATTEMPTED TO RESTORE FULL POWER WHICH INCLUDED THE APPLICATION OF CARB HEAT; THE PILOT MADE AN EMERGENCY LANDING IN NEARBY RIVER. EXAMINATION OF THE AIRCRAFT AND THE ENGINE ASSEMBLY FAILED TO DISCLOSE A MECHANICAL PROBLEM, OR A SUBSYSTEM MALFUNCTION; THE PILOT REPORTED NO PREVIOUS ENGINE PROBLEMS. WEATHER CONDITIONS AT THE NEAREST REPORTING SITE WERE FAVORABLE FOR THE FORMATION OF CARBURETOR ICE; THE PILOT RECEIVED A WEATHER BRIEFING BEFORE THE FLIGHT.
Probable cause
THE LOSS OF ENGINE POWER FOR UNDETERMINED REASONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL93LA147
- Event ID
- 20001211X13064
- Case number
- ATL93LA147
- 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: d631a023c9f5f73cc2b7a4382a1574b5c909540468647832f4452d98bafb2bbf; retrieved 2026-09-21T22:49:59.475Z.