ATL91LA085 · Piper PA-28R-200
Aztec Aviation Piper PA-28R-200 · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From 2A3 · Bessemer, AL to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL91LA085
- 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-28R-200
- 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
- N503G
- Operator
- Aztec Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 2A3 · Bessemer, ALTo 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
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- Fuel exhaustion
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
- Fluid, oil › Leak
- Lubricating system, oil hose › Deteriorated
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A COMPLETED PREFLIGHT INSPECTION DETERMINED THAT ALL SYSTEMS WERE OPERATIONAL PRIOR TO DEPARTURE. THE PILOT ALSO CONFIRMED THAT 7 1/2 QUARTS OF ENGINE OIL WAS IN THE CRANKCASE. A FEW MINUTES INTO THE FLIGHT THE PILOT COULD NOT ADJUST THE PROPELLER PITCH, AND HE ALSO NOTICED THAT THE ENGINE OIL PRESSURE WAS DROPPING. HE ELECTED TO RETURN TO THE AIRPORT. EN ROUTE TO THE AIRPORT THE ENGINE QUIT AND SEIZED. THE AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH A RAILROAD SIGNAL BOX WHILE THE PILOT WAS ATTEMPTING AN EMERGENCY LANDING ON A COUNTY ROAD. EXAMINATION OF THE AIRPLANE DISCLOSED THAT A RUBBER OIL COOLER HOSE HAD RUPTURED. THE MAINTENANCE RECORDS INDICATED THAT THE FAILED HOSE HAD BEEN IN SERVICE FOR 3141 HOURS SINCE INSTALLATION.
Probable cause
RUPTURE OF A HIGH-TIME, RUBBER, OIL COOLER HOSE, WHICH RESULTED IN A LOSS OF ENGINE OIL, OIL EXHAUSTION, AND SEIZURE OF THE ENGINE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL91LA085
- Event ID
- 20001212X16729
- Case number
- ATL91LA085
- 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: 91e158b47a2c11b0cb152dd25b009ec1d8642caff721047286d4472b9799e0e6; retrieved 2026-09-23T04:17:44.692Z.