ATL82FA087 · Piper PA-28-140
Piper PA-28-140 · Accident: in flight collision with object during initial climb
From Westminster, MD to Gaithersburg, MD
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL82FA087
- 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
- 4 · 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 PA-28-140
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N2490T
- Operator
- Francis L Fenwick · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Westminster, MDTo Gaithersburg, MD
- 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
- Stall/mush
- 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 › Airspeed, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Stall/mush, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRCRAFT CRASHED AFTER TAKEOFF FROM A 2930 FT RUNWAY WITH FOUR OCCUPANTS ON BOARD. THE AIRCRAFT WEIGHT WAS NOT KNOWN, BUT WAS ESTIMATED TO BE 2334 LBS DURING TAKEOFF. THERE WAS A LIGHT WIND FROM THE WEST AND THE TEMPERATURE WAS 42 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT. WITNESSES WHO OBSERVED THE TAKEOFF ROLL STATED THAT THE ENGINE SOUNDED NORMAL, BUT THE AIRCRAFT DID NOT BECOME AIRBORNE UNTIL 2200 TO 2700 FT DOWN THE RUNWAY. REPORTEDLY, THE AIRCRAFT CLIMBED NO HIGHER THAN 100 TO 150 FT AGL, THEN DISAPPEARED FROM THEIR VIEW ABOUT A MILE FROM THE RUNWAY. A PILOT THAT WAS LANDING IN ANOTHER PLANE OBSERVED THE AIRCRAFT TURN LEFT ABOUT 80 DEGREES DURING A LOW AND SLOW DEPARTURE. THE AIRCRAFT STRUCK TREES ABOUT 1.5 MILES FROM THE END OF THE RUNWAY AND LEFT OF ITS CENTERLINE. AN EXAMINATION OF THE WRECKAGE REVEALED NO PREIMPACT MALFUNCTION OR FAILURE. RELATIVES AND ACQUAINTANCES OF THE PILOT COULD NOT RECALL THE PILOT PREVIOUSLY OPERATING THE AIRCRAFT WITH FOUR ADULTS ON BOARD.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL82FA087
- Event ID
- 20020917X01736
- Case number
- ATL82FA087
- 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: 313a8241c1b4adb010e5b2063ca915da8e009e5572f9e3b16f45bc2df4b99167; retrieved 2026-09-21T08:33:44.233Z.