ATL00FA016 · Piper PA-32RT-300 PA-32RT-30
Piper PA-32RT-300 PA-32RT-30 · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during initial climb
From 33J to Dothan Regional Airport (DHN)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL00FA016
- 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
- 2 · 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-32RT-300 PA-32RT-30
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-32
- 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
- N2215U
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 33JTo Dothan Regional Airport (DHN), Dothan, AL
- 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 on ground/water
- 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; 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 › Airspeed, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to a pilot witness, the pilot had difficulty starting the aircraft engine. The witness stated that the engine coughed and sputtered and black smoke was coming from the exhaust. Once the engine started, it ran smoothly. The pilot taxied to runway 29, stopped short and did a run-up. Following the run-up the aircraft taxied onto the runway and began its takeoff roll. The witness stated that the aircraft was weaving to the left and right as it proceeded down the runway. He said the aircraft lifted off about 1,000 feet down the runway and then came back down, bouncing on the nose gear. The aircraft again started to climb and banked to the left. He said the aircraft again descended and then climbed again still banking to the left and disappeared behind some trees. Examination of the wreckage did not reveal any anomalies to the airframe, or the engine.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain adequate airspeed during takeoff which resulted in a stall and the subsequent collision with trees.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL00FA016
- Event ID
- 20001212X20190
- Case number
- ATL00FA016
- 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: 78f84f85d02ee701d3c9ad94fd28ab9373bd7a582189278b016fd9a2fcb3475e; retrieved 2026-09-20T21:34:46.092Z.