ATL92FA032 · Piper PA 28-140
Piper PA 28-140 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Blythe, GA (no airport) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL92FA032
- 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 28-140
- 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
- N1733T
- Operator
- Giles, David M. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Blythe, GA (no airport)To 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 · climb to 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
- Partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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 › Carburetor heat, not used
- Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING CLIMBOUT THE PILOT EXPERIENCED A PARTIAL LOSS OF ENGINE POWER AND ATTEMPTED A FORCED LANDING IN A WOODED AREA. A WITNESS REPORTED THAT THE ENGINE CUT OUT AS THE AIRPLANE FLEW OVER HIS LOCATION. SECONDS LATER THE AIRPLANE CRASHED IN THE ADJACENT WOODS AND BURNED. EXAMINATION OF THE ACCIDENT SITE DISCLOSED PROPELLER SLASH MARKS ON FRESHLY CUT TREES ALONG THE WRECKAGE PATH. THE WRECKAGE EXAMINATION FAILED TO REVEAL A MECHANICAL COMPONENT FAILURE OR A SYSTEM MALFUNCTION WITH THE POWERPLANT OR AIRFRAME. HOWEVER, THE LOCAL WEATHER REPORT INDICATED CONDITIONS FAVORABLE FOR THE FORMULATION OF CARBURETOR ICE. ACCORDING TO THE OWNER'S HANDBOOK, THE PILOT SHOULD CHECK THE CARBURETOR HEAT DURING THE GROUND CHECK TO ELIMINATE THE FORMATION OF CARBURETOR ICE DURING TAXI.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO APPLY CARBURETOR HEAT DURING THE BEFORE TAKEOFF CHECK AS PART OF THE GROUND CHECK. A FACTOR WAS WEATHER CONDITIONS FAVORABLE FOR THE FORMATION OF CARBURETOR ICE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL92FA032
- Event ID
- 20001212X18541
- Case number
- ATL92FA032
- 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: a979568b504f6074a2e06a715751c177f857c14159aaedf2f17fba9b0ee5e218; retrieved 2026-09-21T15:10:09.828Z.