ATL93LA006 · Piper PA-12
Piper PA-12 · Accident: in flight collision with object during initial climb
From No airport to Cape Fear Regional Jetport / Howie Franklin Field Airport (SUT)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL93LA006
- 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-12
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-12
- 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
- N72HW
- Operator
- Conklin, Dale L. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From No airportTo Cape Fear Regional Jetport / Howie Franklin Field Airport (SUT), Southport, 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
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Proper climb rate, not attained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PRIVATE PILOT WAS TO FERRY THE AIRCRAFT FROM A PRIVATE, GRASS FIELD TO A LOCAL AIRPORT SO THAT AN ANNUAL INSPECTION COULD BE PERFORMED. AFTER ABOUT 30 MINUTES OF GROUND OPERATION TO FAMILIARIZE HIMSELF WITH THE HANDLING CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AIRCRAFT, HE ADDED FUEL AND PREPARED FOR TAKEOFF. DURING THE TAKEOFF ROLL, HE NOTICED THAT ACCELERATION WAS NOT VERY GOOD; HOWEVER, THE ENGINE WAS RUNNING SMOOTHLY. AFTER ROTATION, HE REALIZED THAT THE AIRCRAFT WOULD NOT CLEAR PERIMETER TREES, SO HE CLOSED THE THROTTLE AND ATTEMPTED TO FLY BETWEEN THEM. THE AIRCRAFT COLLIDED WITH TREES, THEN FELL INTO AN ADJACENT WATERWAY. THE PILOT LATER REPORTED THAT THE 1,100 FOOT LONG RUNWAY CONSISTED OF WET GRASS, WITH AREAS OF SOFT SAND. ON THE TAKEOFF ROLL, HE PULLED BACK ON THE STICK TO AVOID ROUGH AREAS. HE ALSO REPORTED THAT THE PREVAILING HEAD WIND HAD SHIFTED TO A TAIL WIND.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT PLANNING, WHICH RESULTED IN HIS INABLILTY TO ATTAIN A PROPER CLIMB RATE DURING THE TAKEOFF. FACTORS WERE THE RUNWAY CONDITIONS (SOFT, ROUGH TERRAIN, WET GRASS), THE PERIMETER TREES, AND THE TAIL WIND CONDITIONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL93LA006
- Event ID
- 20001211X15810
- Case number
- ATL93LA006
- 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: 192617f2d9e9a318cab3cc3ed79a1b3dfec45f00458ecbbe854f17f759a1b575; retrieved 2026-09-23T02:33:46.830Z.