ATL84LA021 · Aero Commander 100-180
Aero Commander 100-180 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) while maneuvering
From Samuels Field (BRY) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL84LA021
- 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
Aero Commander 100-180
- Aircraft type
- Aero Commander 100
- 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
- N4006X
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Samuels Field (BRY)To 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; Stall
- 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 › Water
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Airspeed(vs), not maintained
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE CFI STATED THAT THE STUDENT PREFLIGHTED THE ACFT. THEY CLIMBED TO 3,000 FT & WERE PRACTICING BASIC INSTRUMENT MANEUVERS WHEN A POWER LOSS OCCURRED. AFTER MANEUVERING TO CLEAR OBSTRUCTIONS, THEN S-TURNING TO DISSIPATE ALTITUDE, THECFI STALLED THE ACFT ABOUT 15 FT AGL & SHORT OF THE INTENDED FIELD. AFTER THE ACCIDENT THE CFI COLLECTED NEARLY A QUART OF WATER FROM THE LEFT FUEL TANK. THE CFI STATED THAT THE ACFT HAD A HISTROY OF COLLECTING WATER IN THE (USUALLY LEFT) FUEL TANK. THE ACFT WAS LAST REFUELED ABOUT 1 WEEK BEFORE THE ACCIDENT, & HAD BEEN OUTSIDE EXPOSED TO SEVERAL INCHES OF RAIN IN THE INTERIM. DESPITE THE HISTORY OF WATER-IN-FUEL PROBLEMS WITH THE ACFT, THE CFI DID NOT CHECK THE TANKS FOR WATER AFTER THE HEAVY RAIN. THE ACFT'S TYPE-CERTIFICATE HOLDER REPORTED THAT THE TOP OF THE FILLER NECK, WHICH IS ABOVE THE WING SURFACE, SHOULD PRECLUDE FLUID IN THE SCUPPER FROM ENTERING THE FILLER NECK. THE BOTTOM OF THE FILLER NECK, HOWEVER, IS ATTACHED TO THE FUEL TANK TOP BY 6 BOLTS & SEALED WITH A GASKET AT THE ATTACHMENT POINT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL84LA021
- Event ID
- 20001214X44751
- Case number
- ATL84LA021
- 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: cc1fe75b132e08419fe1303a460967a5920b009ea3e263d8fff7b108b9a0154e; retrieved 2026-09-22T02:27:40.716Z.