ATL82FA092 · Piper PA-31-350
Aircraft Service Center Piper PA-31-350 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From Austin, TX to Tifton, GA
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL82FA092
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-31-350
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-31
- 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
- N123CB
- Operator
- Aircraft Service Center
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Austin, TXTo Tifton, 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
- En route · descent
- 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
- 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
- Engine assembly › Separation
- Propeller system/accessories, blade › Separation
- Propeller system/accessories, hub › Fatigue
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AS THE PILOT WAS DESCENDING FROM 7000 TO 5000 FT, HE HEARD A LOUD BANG, FOLLOWED BY A TEMPORARY VIBRATION AND A VIOLENT SWERVE TO THE RIGHT. HE LOOKED OUT THE RIGHT WINDOW AND THOUGHT THE RIGHT ENGINE HAD FALLEN OFF SINCE ALL HE COULD SEE WAS THE TOPS OF THE ENGINE MOUNTS. THE AIRCRAFT WAS CONTROLLABLE ONLY AFTER REDUCING THE LEFT ENGINE POWER TO IDLE. DURING A WHEELS UP/FORCED LANDING, THE PLANE TORE THROUGH A FENCE, SLID ACROSS A PAVED ROAD, WENT OVER AN EMBANKMENT AND BEGAN BURNING AFTER IT CAME TO REST. THE PILOT RECEIVED A BACK INJURY AND HAD DIFFICULTY EGRESSING. AN INVESTIGATION REVEALED THE PROPELLER HUB HAD FAILED FROM FATIGUE WHICH RESULTED IN BLADE SEPARATION AND SUBSEQUENT ENGINE TEARAWAY. THE ENGINE HAD REMAINED ATTACHED TO THE AIRFRAME BY CABLES. METALLURGICAL EXAMINATION OF THE HUB REVEALED THAT THE FATIGUE ORIGINATED AT A THREADED GREASE FITTING. GOUGING WAS VISIBLE ON THE INNER WALL. A SET OF INCORRECT COUNTERWEIGHTS WERE FOUND ON THE PROPELLER. THE COUNTERWEIGHT'S FUNCTION WAS TO REDUCE VIBRATION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL82FA092
- Event ID
- 20020917X01738
- Case number
- ATL82FA092
- 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: 6bc150fe2ee8c8289473cf7c75aba74617fb2a656708f9c16bdcd19ecbed733f; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:17:24.544Z.