ATL87LA246 · Piper J3C-65
Piper J3C-65 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL87LA246
- 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 J3C-65
- Aircraft type
- Piper J3
- 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
- N92191
- Operator
- David Lowe
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Fuel contamination; 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Fluid, fuel › Contamination
- Fluid, fuel › Water
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE FLT WAS BEING CONDUCTED AS PART OF A 'CLOWN ACT' AT AN AIR SHOW. THE ENG LOST PWR SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF AS THE PLT WAS PERFORMING PITCHING MANEUVERS. HE UNSUCCESSFULLY ATTEMPTED TO REGAIN PWR BY 'PUMPING' THE THROTTLE. THE AIRPLANE SUBSEQUENTLY IMPACTED TREES. A POST-CRASH EXAM OF THE AIRPLANE REVEALED THE GASCOLATOR WAS ABOUT 90% FULL OF WATER AND 10% FULL OF FUEL. HOWEVER, THE CONTENTS OF THE CARBURETOR WAS MOSTLY FUEL WITH ABOUT 1 TO 2 TEASPOONS OF WATER. A SMALL AMOUNT OF TRASH WAS ALSO PRESENT IN FUEL THAT WAS DRAINED FROM THE CARBURETOR. THE CARBURETOR WAS NOT EQUIPPED WITH AN ACCELERATOR PUMP. NO WATER WAS FOUND IN THE FUEL TANK. THE PLT REPORTED THAT NO WATER WAS OBTAINED WHEN FUEL WAS DRAINED FROM THE FUEL TANK PRIOR TO FLT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL87LA246
- Event ID
- 20001213X31723
- Case number
- ATL87LA246
- 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: e69e48f9d6f51e185422f9a8026bf9d813fd975ca7a7f99ab9cf016d89dbce92; retrieved 2026-09-22T00:45:36.941Z.