ATL84FA222 · Piper PA-32R-300
Saber Aviation Piper PA-32R-300 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Fulton County Airport Brown Field (FTY) to Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL84FA222
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-32R-300
- 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
- N400WS
- Operator
- Saber Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fulton County Airport Brown Field (FTY), Atlanta, GATo Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT), Charlotte, 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
- En route · descent
- 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
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Water
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, improper
- Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, not followed
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Rock Hill, SC, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT WAS DESTROYED IN A POST FLT FIRE AFTER A FORCED LANDING AT NIGHT IN A PRIVATE YARD. THE ENGINE HAD SURGED AND LOST POWER DURING THE DESCENT THROUGH 4500 FT PRIOR TO LANDING. THE ACFT HAD BEEN WRITTEN UP FOR SLUGGISHNESS AND LACK OF RESPONSE TO THROTTLE UPON ARRIVAL AT MONTGOMERY. MONTGOMERY AVIATION DID SOME MAINTENANCE CHECKS AND MADE A COMMENT ABOUT SUSPECTING FUEL INJECTORS. THEY STATED THEY ADVISED THE PLT OF THE SITUATION BUT NO WRITTEN STATEMENT WAS PROVIDEDTO SUPPORT THIS. EXANIMATION OF THE ACFT WRECKAGE SHOWED WATER IN THE FUEL LINES AND DISTRIBUTOR UNIT. THE PLT SAID HIS PRACTICE WAS TO DRAIN THE SUMPS AFTER REFUELING AND NOT DURING PRE-FLT WHEN HE ONLY 'CHECKS THE FUEL LEVEL.'
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL84FA222
- Event ID
- 20001214X40180
- Case number
- ATL84FA222
- 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 1984-07-18.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 5dc91399d3a3aac9bdb949b2ee38a38eb88adc0acfad7851fc60d8580faf12de; retrieved 2026-09-23T20:06:21.629Z.