ATL89FA166 · Piper PA-60-601P
Aero Star Transport Piper PA-60-601P · Accident: fire en route
From DeKalb Peachtree Airport (PDK) to Frederick W. Smith International Airport (MEM)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL89FA166
- 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
- 3 · 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-60-601P
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-60
- 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
- N83AT
- Operator
- Aero Star Transport
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From DeKalb Peachtree Airport (PDK), Atlanta, GATo Frederick W. Smith International Airport (MEM), Memphis, TN
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Fire
- 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
- Engine assembly › Vibration
- Engine assembly, mount › Deteriorated
- Exhaust system, gasket › Other
- Exhaust system, stack › Fatigue
- Exhaust system, stack › Separation
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, alignment, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
ELEVEN MINUTES AFTER DEPARTURE THE PILOT REPORTED SMOKE AND A RIGHT ENGINE PROBLEM, THEN SAID 'GOING DOWN'. RIGHT WING AND ENGINE ASSEMBLIES SEPARATED IN FLIGHT. FIRE DAMAGE VICINITY OF RIGHT ENGINE LEFT TURBOCHARGER; TAILPIPE ASSEMBLY HAD SEPARATED. HEAVY SMOKE & HEAT DAMAGE BETWEEN RIGHT WING FORWARD & AFT WING SPARS. TAILPIPE HAD FAILED IN FATIGUE NEAR FLANGE WHERE ATTACHED TO TURBOCHARGER EXHAUST PORT. EVIDENCE OF NON-UNIFORMLY SEATED GASKET BETWEEN FLANGES. ALSO, RIGHT ENGINE LOWER LEFT ENGINE MOUNT DETERIORATED; SIGNIFICANT PORTION OF RUBBER MISSING. PIPER SB #818 (AD87-07-09) ACCOMPLISHED 5/21/88; REQUIRES REMOVAL & INSPECTION OF EXHAUST SYSTEM FOR CRACKS AND REINSTALLATION WITH NEW FLANGE GASKETS.
Probable cause
INFLIGHT ENGINE/WING FIRE DUE TO A FAILURE OF THE RIGHT ENGINE'S LEFT EXHAUST TAILPIPE. THE EXHAUST TAILPIPE FAILED IN FATIGUE AS A RESULT OF FLUCTUATING STRESSES INDUCED BY A DETERIORATED ENGINE MOUNT IN CONJUNCTION WITH UNEVENLY DISTRIBUTED CLAMPING LOADS CAUSED BY AN IMPROPERLY SEATED GASKET.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL89FA166
- Event ID
- 20001213X28486
- Case number
- ATL89FA166
- 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: c79e85bb53ff934cb5ed3ba00910d58d0a7b9999adfccb7c713bdec10cb5fd17; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:16:26.248Z.