ATL83FA271 · Piper J3C-65
Piper J3C-65 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL83FA271
- 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
- N27111
- Operator
- Szabolscky , S. L. · private individual
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern downwind
- 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; Fuel starvation; 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
ABOUT 15 MIN AFTER TAKEOFF, THE ENG LOST POWER WHILE THE ACFT WAS ON THE DOWNWIND LEG FOR A LANDING ON A PRIVATE STRIP. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE ACFT HIT THE TOPS OF TWO TREES, CRASHED & CAME TO REST APRX 100 YARDS SOUTH OF THE RWY. AN EXAM OF THE WRECKAGE DID NOT REVEAL ANY PREIMPACT, MECHANICAL FAILURES. THE UPPER WING FUEL TANK WAS EMPTY. THE FUSELAGE FUEL TANK WAS DAMAGED DURING IMPACT & FUEL FROM IT SPILLED ONTO THE PLT'S CLOTHES & BODY. THE WING FUEL TANK SELECTOR WAS FOUND IN THE OFF POSITION & THE FUSELAGE TANK VALVE WAS IN THE ON POSITON. THE ENG WAS PARTIALLY DISASSEMBLED, BUT NO PREIMPACT, MECHANICAL MALFUNCTION WAS NOTED. CONTAMINATES WERE NOTED IN THE FUEL STRAINER. SOME YELLOWISH COLORED FUEL WAS REMOVED FROM THE CARBURETOR WHICH CONTAINED SOME CONTAMINATES.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL83FA271
- Event ID
- 20001214X43583
- Case number
- ATL83FA271
- 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 1983-07-13.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 95a1fd0b6ad0743581ef2b13d432d3d2890adb52ee4d6dceeb2fbd4d9f8690d1; retrieved 2026-09-21T17:52:40.363Z.