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ATL99LA093 · Robert W. Ferrell TITAN TORNADO II TITAN TORN

22 May 1999 · ASHBORO, NC, United States

Robert W. Ferrell TITAN TORNADO II TITAN TORN · Accident: loss of engine power while maneuvering

From Greenwood County Airport (GRD) to Causey Airport (2A5)

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Event

NTSB case
ATL99LA093
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

Robert W. Ferrell TITAN TORNADO II TITAN TORN

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
N624RF
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Greenwood County Airport (GRD), Greenville, SCTo Causey Airport (2A5), Liberty, NC
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
Maneuvering
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
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

  • Reason for occurrence undetermined

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

NTSB narrative

The pilot stated that approximately 24 miles from his destination, he noticed an area of thunderstorm activity between his position and his destination. The pilot reversed course and elected to land at an airport that he had overflown. During the course reversal the engine lost power. He decided to attempt a forced landing on a nearby paved road. During the forced landing, he applied full brakes and tried to stop the airplane before coming to a sharp curve in the road. He stated that he 'dropped a wheel off to the right of the road, hoping to slow down in the grass.' The airplane subsequently departed the road, colliding with a telephone pole and a mailbox, and rolled over on its left side. The post-accident examination of the airplane and the engine assembly failed to disclose a mechanical problem. During the engine examination, fuel was traced from the fuel tank to the carburetor. Several gallons of aviation fuel were recovered from the fuel system. The internal examination of the engine disclosed that the piston tops were clean, and a film of engine oil was on the cylinder walls. Engine drive train rotation was also established. A review of weather data disclosed that weather conditions were favorable for the formation of carburetor ice.

Probable cause

The loss of engine power for undetermined reasons. Factors were weather conditions favorable for the formation of carburetor ice.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record ATL99LA093
Event ID
20001212X18697
Case number
ATL99LA093
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: 0cf8d9bc4a966cf1e8fdb745d19afa80d58d80bf6c55fe0574263cc8b8e47ac8; retrieved 2026-09-22T15:08:21.652Z.