ATL86LA260 · Piper PA-23-250
Piper PA-23-250 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From Montgomery Regional (Dannelly Field) Airport (MGM) to Piedmont Triad International Airport (GSO)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL86LA260
- 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-23-250
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-23
- 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
- N6041Y
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Montgomery Regional (Dannelly Field) Airport (MGM), Montgomery, ALTo Piedmont Triad International Airport (GSO), Greensboro, NC
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Pilot in command › Wheels up landing, performed
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING INITIAL CLIMB PHASE OF AN EXPERIMENTAL FLT FROM MGM, AL, THE PLT RPTED THAT THE LEFT ENGINE HAD FAILED AND AN ATTEMPT WAS MADE TO FEATHER THE PROP. THE PLT RADIOED DANNELLY TOWER THAT THE ACFT WAS RETURNING TO THE ARPT. THEN THE PLT RPTED THAT THE RIGHT ENGINE LOST THRUST, HOWEVER THE RIGHT PROP WAS NOT FEATHERED BECAUSE HE WAS NOT SURE IF THE ENGINE WAS PRODUCING POWER. A GEAR-UP FORCED LANDING WAS MADE ON A 4-LANE HIGHWAY. THE ACFT ENGINES WERE FUELED WITH ALCOHOL WITH APPROVAL OF THE FAA FOR RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT. THREE DAYS PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT THE ACFT EXPERIENCED POWER SURGES AND MADE A PRECAUTIONARY LANDING. NO PROBLEMS WERE FOUND AND THE FLIGHT WAS CONTINUED. INSPECTION OF THE ACFT REVEALED THE RIGHT PROP FEATHERED AND THE LEFT PROP IN LOW PITCH. THE ACFT WGT AND BAL INDICATED APPROX. 400# OVER GROSS WEIGHT. THE ENGINES WERE SUCCESSFULLY TEST RUN. THERE HAS BEEN NO DETERMINATION AS TO THE CAUSE OF THE RPTED ENGINE FAILURES.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL86LA260
- Event ID
- 20001213X34717
- Case number
- ATL86LA260
- 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: eba34167ed15770b8dabe84157e5e0c636c8e8a2b6ec07459b562ab0be5bd991; retrieved 2026-09-23T13:58:27.840Z.