FTW90FA119 · Piper PA-28-140
Piper PA-28-140 · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From Shreveport Downtown Airport (DTN) to Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport (BHM)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW90FA119
- 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-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
- N6767W
- Operator
- Walker, James E. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Shreveport Downtown Airport (DTN), Shreveport, LATo Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport (BHM), Birmingham, 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 engine power
- 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/mush; 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, overhaul, major, improper
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Climb, excessive
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AFTER TAKOFF FM RWY 14, THE ACFT WAS SEEN CLIMBING IN A STEEP NOSE HIGH ATTITUDE AT SLOW SPEED. A WITNESS RPRTD IT RCHD AN ALT OF ABT 75' TO 100' & MAINTD THAT ALT FOR APRX 1/2 MI. IT THEN DSCNDD & HIT THE TOPS OF SVRL TREES, THE ROOF OF A HOUSE & THE GND. AFTER COMING TO REST, THE ACFT WAS BADLY DMGD BY FIRE. ONE WITNESS RPRTD THE ENG SPUTTERED AT ABT THE TIME IT HIT THE TREETOPS. ANOTHER INDCD THE ENG WAS CUTTING OUT. A TEARDOWN OF THE ENG REVEALED A NUMBER OF MAINT DISCREPANCIES. MAG TIMING COULD NOT BE CONFIRMED, DUE TO FIRE DMG, BUT THE LEFT MAG WAS ADJUSTED W/I 1/16' OF FULL UP TRAVEL (IN THE ADJUSTMENT SLOT); THE RGT MAG WAS W/I 1/8' OF FULL DWN TRAVEL. THERE WAS NO RECORD OF A MAG INSPN IAW AD 78-09-07 OR COMPLIANCE WITH AD 82-20-01; THE #3T SPRING WAS MISSING FM THE RGT MAG DISTRIBUTOR BLOCK, HYD TAPPETS WERE OF MIXED PARTS, & ONE CONNECTING ROD WAS OF A DIFFERENT WT & PART NO. THE ENG HAD 93 HRS OF FLT TIME SINCE MAJOR OVERHAUL. ALSO, THE DENSITY ALT WAS ABT 3000' & THE ACFT HAD BEEN LOADED NEAR ITS MAX WT LIMIT.
Probable cause
LOSS OF ENGINE POWER FOR AN UNKNOWN REASON.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW90FA119
- Event ID
- 20001212X23416
- Case number
- FTW90FA119
- 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: 93a6b05f6ad22bf33938a3fa20787bd51ff49b131d394fdf7ae6f41cb84b6fb6; retrieved 2026-09-21T02:33:34.840Z.