ATL91LA126 · Moeckel BAKENG DUCE BAKENG DUC
Moeckel BAKENG DUCE BAKENG DUC · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Richard B Russell Airport (RMG)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL91LA126
- 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
Moeckel BAKENG DUCE BAKENG DUC
- Aircraft type
- Moeckel BAKENG DUCE
- 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
- N28372
- Operator
- Cochran, Craig · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Richard B Russell Airport (RMG), Rome, GA
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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 control in flight
- 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
- Stall
- 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
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Directional control, not maintained
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Dawson, GA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE COMMERCIAL PILOT HAD REPORTED HAVING PROBLEMS WITH DIRECTIONAL CONTROL IN THIS AIRPLANE DURING TAKEOFFS AND LANDINGS. HE OBTAINED SOME INSTRUCTION IN A DIFFERENT TAILWHEEL AIRPLANE (A CESSNA 140), BUT COULD NOT FIND SOMEONE TO CHECK HIM OUT IN THE ACCIDENT AIRPLANE. HE ELECTED TO FLY THE AIRPLANE WITHOUT A CHECKOUT. ON TAKEOFF ROLL, HE WAS SEEN WEAVING FROM ONE SIDE OF THE RUNWAY TO THE OTHER. HE ABRUPTLY ROTATED AFTER DEPARTING THE RUNWAY SURFACE TO THE SIDE. THE WINGS 'WOBBLED,' THEN THE AIRPLANE WAS OBSERVED TO BE STALLING. THE AIRPLANE ROLLED OFF TO THE RIGHT AND IMPACTED THE TERRAIN IN A NOSE-LOW ATTITUDE. THE PILOT HAD ONLY 4 HOURS TOTAL TIME IN THIS MAKE/MODEL. HE REPORTED NO MECHANICAL PROBLEMS WITH THE AIRPLANE.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S ABRUPT ROTATION AFTER FAILING TO MAINTAIN DIRECTIONAL CONTROL DURING TAKEOFF ROLL, AND HIS FAILURE TO MAINTAIN AIRSPEED DURING THE INITIAL CLIMB, WHICH RESULTED IN A STALL. A FACTOR IN THE ACCIDENT WAS: THE PILOT'S LACK OF FAMILIARITY WITH THE AIRPLANE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL91LA126
- Event ID
- 20001212X17436
- Case number
- ATL91LA126
- 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: fcf7eb3e1bf0b561da5bbd4c32b8d1dbc7061978c0dd448aa55c23dc35173948; retrieved 2026-09-21T15:24:10.962Z.