ATL91FA051 · Piper PA-23-250
Shamrock Gravure Products Piper PA-23-250 · Accident: in flight collision with object during takeoff
From an unrecorded airport to Piedmont Triad International Airport (GSO)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL91FA051
- 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
- 1 · 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-23-250
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-23
- 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
- N6247Y
- Operator
- Shamrock Gravure Products
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Piedmont Triad International Airport (GSO), Greensboro, 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
- Takeoff
- 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 › Proper climb rate, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
IMMEDIATELY AFTER A NIGHT TAKEOFF IN FOGGY CONDITIONS, THE AIRPLANE IMPACTED TREES 1560 FT FROM THE DEPARTURE END OF THE RUNWAY. WITNESSES REPORTED THE ENGINES SOUNDED NORMAL & 'IN SYNC.' THE LANDING GEAR WAS RETRACTED. THE VISIBILITY WAS ESTIMATED TO BE 1/2 MI WITH PATCHY GROUND FOG. THE PILOT'S LOGBOOK SHOWED 3 FLIGHTS IN A PIPER PA-23 DURING 1990 FOR A TOTAL TIME OF 5.5 HRS, THE LAST OF WHICH WAS IN JUNE OF 1990. HOWEVER, THE PILOT RECEIVED A 1-HR FAMILIARIZATION FLIGHT IN THE AIRPLANE 3 DAYS BEFORE THE ACCIDENT.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO MAINTAIN A POSITIVE RATE-OF-CLIMB AFTER LIFT-OFF. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: DARKNESS, LOW CEILING, FOG, AND THE PILOT'S LIMITED EXPERIENCE IN A PIPER PA-23.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL91FA051
- Event ID
- 20001212X16399
- Case number
- ATL91FA051
- 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: 830cf4077b867b66170ed800026ab904093a986e64a1b68de3623b787ab6b65d; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:58:56.120Z.