Top Flight Piper PA-60-600 incident
Piper PA-60-600 · Incident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
From Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) to Tampa International Airport (TPA)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL91IA050
- 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
- Incident
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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-60-600
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-60
- 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
- N6070D
- Operator
- Top Flight
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), Atlanta, GATo Tampa International Airport (TPA), Tampa, FL
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- Not recorded
- 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
- Fuel system, fuel shutoff › Failure, total
- Pilot in command › Directional control, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE CRUISING AT 7000 FEET THE PILOT EXPERIENCED A LOSS OF POWER ON THE RIGHT ENGINE. THE PILOT REQUESTED ASSISTANCE FROM JACKSONVILLE CENTER, AND WAS VECTORED TO COCHRAN AIRPORT. THE PILOT ESTABLISHED AN APPROACH TO THE AIRPORT BUT WAS UNABLE TO LOWER THE WING FLAPS. APPARENTLY, AFTER THE LANDING GEAR WAS EXTENDED, THERE WAS NOT ENOUGH HYDRAULIC PRESSURE AVAILABLE TO LOWER THE WING FLAPS. THE ONLY HYDRAULIC PUMP WAS INSTALLED ON THE RIGHT ENGINE. THE PILOT LOST DIRECTIONAL CONTROL DURING THE LANDING ROLLOUT, AND THE AIRPLANE VEERED OFF THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE RUNWAY INTO A DITCH. THE PILOT STATED THAT HEAVY LEFT BRAKING WAS USED, BUT FAILED TO CORRECT THE RIGHTWARD DRIFT. ACCORDING TO THE FLIGHT MANUAL, THE PILOT SHOULD USE ENGINE POWER AND BRAKING TO MAINTAIN DIRECTIONAL CONTROL DURING THE EMERGENCY LANDING. EXAMINATION OF THE AIRPLANE DISCLOSED THAT THE RIGHT FUEL SHUTOFF VALVE HAD FAILED AND FUEL WAS SHUTOFF TO THE RIGHT ENGINE. ADDITIONALLY, THE RIGHT WING SPAR WAS REPAIRED PRIOR TO RESTORING THE AIRPLANE TO A FULL AIRWORTHY STATUS.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE RIGHT ENGINE SHUTOFF VALVE WHICH RESULTED IN A COMPLETE LOSS OF ENGINE POWER. THE AIRPLANE VEERED OFF THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE RUNWAY AND THE RIGHT MAIN LANDING GEAR COLLAPSED AS A RESULT OF THE PILOTS FAILURE TO MAINTAIN DIRECTIONAL CONTROL DURING THE LANDING ROLLOUT. FACTORS IN THIS INCIDENT WERE THE DARK NIGHT, AND A LOSS OF HYDRAULIC PRESSURE WHEN THE RIGHT ENGINE FAILED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL91IA050
- Event ID
- 20001212X16402
- Case number
- ATL91IA050
- 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: 043f6868d6938ee83dba8706236a3bfb8fb0d3e9e67b5b162fda7238cd7814d7; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:56:54.225Z.