FTW99FA222 · Piper PA30
Adventure Aero Piper PA30 · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From F99 to University of Oklahoma Westheimer Airport (OUN)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW99FA222
- 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
- 1 · 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 PA30
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA30
- 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
- N7178Y
- Operator
- Adventure Aero
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From F99To University of Oklahoma Westheimer Airport (OUN), Norman, OK
- 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 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to a witness, the twin-engine airplane's takeoff appeared to be 'normal' except for the loud noise, which he believed was coming from the right engine. The noise 'sounded like something rubbing against a metal fan.' The witness stated that 'after the plane was in the air, it started to turn to the left like it was going to gain altitude [and] then suddenly turned right, then it started to lose altitude.' He then lost sight of the airplane as it went behind some trees. Another witness described hearing the airplane overhead 'backfiring, popping.' The witness watched the aircraft for about 1/2 mile until it disappeared behind some trees. The witness continued to hear the engine 'pop' about 20 more times before hearing a 'large backfire, 'pop'' and 10-15 seconds later he 'heard the engines race in rpm (motor revved-up high).' He then heard the airplane impact the ground. According to an insurance application filled out nine months before the accident, the commercial pilot had a total of 507 flight hours, of which 85.6 hours were in multi-engine airplanes. Other than one flight with the operator of the airplane earlier in the day of the accident, the pilot did not have any previous experience in the same make and model as the accident airplane. Flight control continuity was established. The right propeller was found in what appeared to be the feather position. An examination of the engine did not reveal any anomalies that would have resulted in a loss of power.
Probable cause
the pilot's failure to maintain aircraft control during takeoff initial climb. Factors were the loss of right engine power for undetermined reasons, and the pilot's lack of total experience in the make and model of aircraft.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW99FA222
- Event ID
- 20001212X19503
- Case number
- FTW99FA222
- 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: aa49fc3d9705cd74ed29146509e3cbb162e2d1ec6558503dd02b94985e4c7382; retrieved 2026-09-20T21:52:17.975Z.