ATL87FA212 · Piper PA-28
Piper PA-28 · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From an unrecorded airport to Daniel Field (DNL)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL87FA212
- 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
- 0 · 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
- 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
- N5502F
- Operator
- Muriel D. Comolli · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Daniel Field (DNL), Augusta, GA
- 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 · climb to 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
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT NOTED A PROGRESSIVE LOSS OF PWR THAT BEGAN DRG THE CLIMB TO CRUISE. HE DIVERTED BACK TOWARD THE DEP ARPT & ATMTDTO RESTORE PWR BY ACTIVATING THE BOOST PUMP, MOVING THE MIXTURE TO FULL RICH, SWITCHING FUEL TANKS & APPLYING CARB HEAT.HOWEVER, THE ENG CONTD TO LOSE PWR. AS HE MANEUVERED THE ACFT ONTO A SHORT FINAL APCH, THE ENG LOST ALL PWR & THE ACFT CRASH LNDD SHORT OF THE RWY IN A SWAMP. A POST-CRASH EXAM OF THE ENG REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF MECHANICAL FAILURE. SVRL OUNCES OF WATER & SEDIMENT WERE FND IN THE CARB BOWL; HOWEVER, DRG THE CRASH &/OR RECOVERY OF THE ACFT, THE FUEL LINES BROKE & THE ENG BECAME NEARLY COMPLETELY SUBMERGED IN WATER. SVRL SPARK PLUGS WERE SLIGHTLY FOULED WITH BLACK, SOOTY CARBON DEPOSITS. THE ACFT WAS STC'D TO OPER ON AUTO-FUEL & WAS SVCD WITH 89 OCTANE REGULAR FUEL. THE CARB WAS EQUIPPED WITH A COMPOSITE FLOAT, WHICH HAD EVIDENCE OF MINOR DETERIORATION; HOWEVER, DRG A FLOW CHECK, THE CARB FUNCTIONED PROPERLY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL87FA212
- Event ID
- 20001213X31385
- Case number
- ATL87FA212
- 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: 8b4681b8225e11cea26d50e0a4123b5ae945d6ca134ab0d3f7d495dca4606b98; retrieved 2026-09-21T16:22:54.399Z.