ATL02LA055 · Krejci S-51D
Krejci S-51D · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during takeoff
From Treasure Coast Airpark (FL37) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL02LA055
- 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
- 1 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- 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
Krejci S-51D
- Aircraft type
- Krejci S-51
- 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
- N51KK
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Treasure Coast Airpark (FL37), Port St. Lucie, FLTo 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
- Takeoff · roll/run
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- 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
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane was observed on the takeoff roll by several witnesses. The engine was heard making a sound described as similar to a pop, slight burp, stumbling engine, slight miss, or a sound similar to dropping a cylinder like a belch. The tail wheel was observed to come off the ground and the engine was heard to make a missing sound and then smoothed out. The airplane became airborne and was observed to initiate a right turn followed by a steep turn back to the left estimated at about a 45-degree angle of bank. Both wing tips were visible to the witnesses. The airplane was at about 200 to 250 feet when it appeared to encounter a stall. It looked like the pilot initiated a recovery. The nose came up and the wings started to level. The airplane disappeared from view behind some tress and was heard to impact the terrain. Examination of the engine assembly revealed a hole in the vicinity of the No. 7 cylinder. The rocker cover was removed and the rocker arm for the exhaust valve was lying at an angle. The stud for the rocker arm was broken. A valve rocker retaining nut found at the crash site matched the broken end of the stud.
Probable cause
The pilots failure to maintain airspeed while maneuvering in an attempt to return to landing area (Emergency/ departure airport.) This resulted in an inadvertent stall and subsequent in-flight collision with terrain. Factor to the accident was a partial loss of engine power due to a failed exhaust valve.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL02LA055
- Event ID
- 20020228X00280
- Case number
- ATL02LA055
- 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, coordinates. 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: e538e5ead1045de6c41efb1b6fb8e1602433740babca9f5de04f92a0b1389c2e; retrieved 2026-09-20T20:10:54.838Z.