FTW90FA160 · Aerospatiale/SOCATA TB-10
Peachtree Dekalb Flight Acdmy Aerospatiale/SOCATA TB-10 · Accident: in flight collision with object during takeoff
From Aldan Airport (ADH) to Bill & Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field (LIT)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW90FA160
- 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
- 4 · 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
Aerospatiale/SOCATA TB-10
- Aircraft type
- Aerospatiale/socata TB-10
- 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
- N20AZ
- Operator
- Peachtree Dekalb Flight Acdmy
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Aldan Airport (ADH)To Bill & Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field (LIT), Little Rock, AR
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- In flight collision with object
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not attained
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
ACCORDING TO WITNESSES, THE AIRPLANE LIFTED OFF FROM THE RUNWAY ABRUPTLY, BUT IT NEVER GAIN MORE THAN ABOUT 50 TO 75 FT OF ALTITUDE, THOUGH A NOSE HIGH ATTITUDE WAS MAINTAINED. THEY ALSO STATED THAT SHORTLY AFTER LIFTOFF, THEY SAW BLACK & THEN GREY SMOKE COMING FROM THE ENGINE EXHAUST. THE AIRPLANE SUBSEQUENTLY COLLIDED WITH TREES ABOUT TWO MILES FROM THE DEPARTURE END OF THE RUNWAY. THE TEMPERATURE WAS 97 DEGREES & THE DENSITY ALTITUDE WAS ESTIMATED TO BE 3500 FEET. AN INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THE AIRPLANE WAS OVERLOADED BY 228 LBS & THAT THE C.G. WAS ABOUT 0.69 INCHES AFT OF THE AFT LIMIT. THE FLAPS WERE FOUND EXTENDED ABOUT 25 DEGREES; THE RECOMMENDED FLAP SETTING FOR TAKEOFF WAS 15 DEGREES.
Probable cause
IMPROPER PLANNING/DECISION BY THE PILOT, WHICH RESULTED IN HIS FAILURE TO ATTAIN SUFFICIENT AIRSPEED FOR A CLIMB PROFILE. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE PILOT ALLOWED THE WEIGHT AND BALANCE OF THE AIRCRAFT TO EXCEED THE CERTIFIED LIMITS, HIS USE OF EXCESSIVE FLAPS AND IMPROPER LEANING OF THE MIXTURE FOR TAKEOFF, AND HIGH DENSITY ALTITUDE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW90FA160
- Event ID
- 20001212X24001
- Case number
- FTW90FA160
- 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: 5dfbef1564725ec218a33da87d43a49ee760e6a555dd9922d326b803b5b71bea; retrieved 2026-09-21T02:20:37.417Z.