ATL87LA202 · Piper PA-32RT-300 PA-32RT-30
Causey Aviation Service Piper PA-32RT-300 PA-32RT-30 · Accident: loss of engine power during takeoff
From an unrecorded airport to Grand Strand Airport (CRE)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL87LA202
- 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-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
- N9385C
- Operator
- Causey Aviation Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Grand Strand Airport (CRE), NO.MYRTLE BEACH, SC
- 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 · roll/run
- 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
BFR DEPARTING ON A NGT FLT, THE ACFT WAS LOADED UNTIL IT WAS AT OR NEAR ITS MAX GROSS WT LIMIT. THE PLT STATED THAT AS HE WAS TAKING OFF ON A 3000' RWY, THE ENG 'COUGHED' AFTER THE ACFT HAD ACCELERATED TO ABOUT THE ROTATION SPEED & WAS APRX 3/4 OF THE WAY DOWN THE RWY. HE ELECTED TO ABORT THE TAKEOFF, BUT WAS UNABLE TO STOP ON THE REMAINING RWY. BFR STOPPING, THE ACFT WENT DOWN AN EMBANKMENT & THE NOSE GEAR COLLAPSED. AN EXAM & AN OPNL CHECK OF THE ENG REVEALED NO PRE-ACDNT PART FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION, EXCEPT FOR A RICH IDLE MIXTURE. ABOUT 19 MI NW AT GREENSBORO, NC, THE WX WAS: 7000 FT BRKN, 15 MI VIS, WIND FROM 200 DEG AT 7 KTS, TEMP 74, DEW POINT 70, ALTIMETER SETTING 30.03' HG. ACCORDING TO THE ACFT OPERATOR'S MANUAL, 840' OF PAVED RWY WOULD HAVE BEEN REQUIRED TO STOP. SKID MARKS WERE FOUND ON THE LAST 500' OF THE RWY & ACROSS 250' OF SOD BEFORE THE ACFT WENT OFF THE EMBANKMENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL87LA202
- Event ID
- 20001213X31393
- Case number
- ATL87LA202
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1987-07-03.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 4535f40e275e6e3e5c1209b42a6cc703bf826b59dd85b0203011a1d40942764f; retrieved 2026-09-23T12:54:37.624Z.