ATL02FA072 · North American T-6-AT6D
U.S. Aircraft North American T-6-AT6D · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From Lee Gilmer Memorial Airport (GVL) to Lee Gilmer Memorial Airport (GVL)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL02FA072
- 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
- 2 · 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
North American T-6-AT6D
- Aircraft type
- North American T-6
- 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
- N7471C
- Operator
- U.S. Aircraft
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lee Gilmer Memorial Airport (GVL), Gainesville, GATo Lee Gilmer Memorial Airport (GVL), Gainesville, GA
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Eng assembly, blower/impeller/integral supercharger › Failure, total
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot and CFI were conducting a series of touch and go landings when smoke was seen streaming from the right lower section of the engine cowling after take off. Witnesses also reported hearing a rough engine condition. At approximately the same time, the pilot initiated a left turn towards the airport. The airplane was last seen in a nose low attitude. The airplane disappeared below the tree line and collided with the ground. Examination of the engine revealed damage throughout the supercharger assembly. The supercharge impeller was not totally secure on the impeller shaft. The impeller shaft retainer nut was loose on its shaft. This nut as well as the impeller shaft gear-teeth showed signs of wear. These teeth were worn down and disfigured. Both the aluminum cover plate and the bottom of the impeller blades showed signs of circular scraping. Small pieces of metal were found throughout the engine. Disassembly of the oil filter revealed metal shavings throughout. No metal parts or gear teeth were found in the oil sump.
Probable cause
A loss of engine power following a supercharger bearing failure and subsequent collision with the ground while maneuvering for an emergency landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL02FA072
- Event ID
- 20020405X00470
- Case number
- ATL02FA072
- 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: 13d4c2db781d6316b553d259ee63e2767d9609eb24df3d421ce2c25a9c50d3ed; retrieved 2026-09-20T20:07:34.144Z.