ATL91FA067 · Piper PA-28-201T
Piper PA-28-201T · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From Grand Strand Airport (CRE) to PAH · Newport News, VA
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL91FA067
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-28-201T
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N2871H
- Operator
- Sansoucie, Barry R. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Grand Strand Airport (CRE), Myrtle Beach, SCTo PAH · Newport News, VA
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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 › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Design stress limits of aircraft, exceeded
- Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
- Pilot in command › Vacuum system, improper use of
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT REPORTED A VACUUM SYSTEM FAILURE AND A PITOT STATIC SYSTEM MALFUNCTION DURING AN INSTRUMENT FLIGHT UNDER INSTRUMENT WEATHER CONDITIONS, BUT HE ELECTED TO CONTINUE THE FLIGHT. THE FLIGHT TRACK AND ALTITUDE WERE ERRATIC. AFTER 28 MINUTES OF FLIGHT, THE PILOT REPORTED THAT HE WAS IN A DIVE. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE RIGHT OUTBOARD WING PANEL, RUDDER AND HORIZONTAL STABILATOR(S) SEPARATED IN FLIGHT. EXAMINATION OF THE AIRPLANE REVEALED THAT THE VACUUM PUMP DRIVE COUPLING SHEARED BECAUSE OF IMPROPER THREAD TREATMENT (SEALANT TAPE) USED DURING INSTALLATION. THE AIRPLANE WAS EQUIPPED WITH A STANDBY VACUUM SYSTEM, WHICH AT HIGHER ALTITUDES, REQUIRED THAT THE PILOT SPOOL THE SYSTEM (REDUCE POWER THEN ADVANCE THE THROTTLE) TO MAINTAIN VACUUM PRESSURE.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S IMPROPER USE OF EQUIPMENT WHICH AFFECTED THE OPERATION OF THE STANDBY VACUUM PUMP, THE PILOT'S LOSS OF AIRCRAFT CONTROL AFTER EXPERIENCING SPATIAL DISORIENTATION, AND HIS EXCEEDING THE DESIGN STRESS LIMITS OF THE AIRCRAFT. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE MECHANIC'S IMPROPER USE OF THREAD COATING MATERIAL, THE PILOT'S OPERATION OF THE AIRCRAFT WITH A KNOWN MALFUNCTION OF THE PRIMARY VACUUM PUMP, AND THE ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL91FA067
- Event ID
- 20001212X16539
- Case number
- ATL91FA067
- 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: 6562b9b985ed483eda5117bc23de977405d1c90f694df5fa4e8f8b074087361c; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:54:30.381Z.