MIA02LA127 · Thomas Outback
Thomas Outback · Accident: in flight collision with object during initial climb
From Deer Run Airport (NC56) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA02LA127
- 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
Thomas Outback
- Aircraft type
- Thomas OUTBACK
- 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
- N74PT
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Deer Run Airport (NC56), Edenton, NCTo 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
- 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
- In flight collision with object
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Proper climb rate, 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
A witness stated that he observed the airplane as it was getting ready to takeoff at the pilot/owner's private airstrip, and the engine sounded as if it was "missing or sputtering", and not as it had sounded on previous occasions. He said that as the airplane departed it sounded as if it was loosing power. As it proceeded down the runway, the witness said it started moving to the left and it impacted trees at the end of the runway. The airplane descended and impacting the ground in a thicket of trees, about 200 feet off the departure end of the runway, and a fire ensued. The fire engulfed the airplane and consumed the all except for its frame and engine. The FAA inspector who responded to the scene of the accident stated that the pilot/owner and the airplane mechanic were both in the accident airplane, and had removed the previous propeller and installed another, and were embarking on a flight after maintenance had been performed. On August 5, 2002, under the supervision of an FAA inspector, an FAA licensed airframe and powerplant mechanic with an inspection authorization rating, conducted an examination of the engine. The examination revealed no evidence of preaccident mechanical failure or malfunction. Damage consistent with exposure to heat from the postcrash fire. On August 14, 2002, the propeller was examined at the propeller manufacturer's facility under the supervision of FAA inspectors, and the examination revealed that the propeller had been set to the low pitch limit. According to the manufacturer of the kit, the "Outback", and it had a maximum takeoff gross weight of 1,550 pounds, an empty weight was about 950 pounds, and when loaded with fuel, carried twenty seven and a half gallons. As configured the Outback would have had a ground roll of about 750 feet. The runway at the owner's private strip was about 2400 feet long, and about 56 feet wide.N74PT was taking off to the southeast at the time of the accident.The density altitude was about 2,100 feet at the time of the accident.
Probable cause
The pilot/owner's failure to establish an adequate climb rate and his failure to maintain obstacle clearance.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA02LA127
- Event ID
- 20020710X01084
- Case number
- MIA02LA127
- 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: 3ba7d872e132c19dd00879ea3bc8c37aa82faecc945b98171c7edd3ab0b5274e; retrieved 2026-09-20T19:58:10.225Z.