FLIGHT FINDINGSAVIATION OCCURRENCE MAP
Back to map

ATL91LA076 · David Lowe ULTRA-PUP

3 Apr 1991 · Waycross, GA, United States

Mosler Motors David Lowe ULTRA-PUP · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during landing

From Daniel Field (DNL) to an unrecorded destination

Report a problem

Event

NTSB case
ATL91LA076
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

David Lowe ULTRA-PUP

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
N71427
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Daniel Field (DNL), Augusta, GATo not recorded
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
Landing · flare/touchdown
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
Substantial

Cause areas

  • Electrical system, battery › Failure, total
  • Landing gear, nose gear › Disabled

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

THE COMMERCIAL PILOT WAS PREPARING TO LAND THE HOMEBUILT, AMPHIBIOUS AIRPLANE. THE MAIN LANDING GEAR EXTENDED; HOWEVER, THE NOSE GEAR REMAINED UP. AN UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPT WAS MADE TO RAISE THE MAIN GEAR. THE PILOT THEN ELECTED TO LAND THE AIRPLANE ON THE GRASS SURFACE ADJACENT TO THE PAVED RUNWAY. UPON TOUCHDOWN, THE FRONT FLOAT PODS DUG INTO THE SOFT SOIL, AND THE AIRPLANE NOSED OVER. THE OPERATOR REPORTED THAT THE BATTERY HAD FAILED, AND BATTERY POWER IS REQUIRED TO RAISE AND LOWER THE LANDING GEAR.

Probable cause

THE FAILURE OF THE AIRPLANE BATTERY, WHICH PROHIBITED THE COMPLETE EXTENSION OF THE LANDING GEAR, RESULTING IN A LANDING WITH THE NOSE GEAR RETRACTED. A FACTOR IN THE ACCIDENT WAS THE SOFT TERRAIN AT THE SELECTED LANDING AREA.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record ATL91LA076
Event ID
20001212X16722
Case number
ATL91LA076
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: b75c3cf9b50740a5f18db95d62cbb95f3f9feeb018c1717c3c8c516860c5f481; retrieved 2026-09-23T04:27:54.522Z.