FTW82FQA19 · Piper PA-16
Piper PA-16 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during takeoff
From 4CR · Albuquerque, NM to Flagstaff, AZ
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW82FQA19
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-16
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-16
- 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
- N5648H
- Operator
- Charles A. Sweet · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 4CR · Albuquerque, NMTo Flagstaff, AZ
- 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
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Powerplant controls, improper use of
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Albuquerque, NM, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
BOTH OF THE OCCUPANTS WERE RATED PILOTS AND HAD JUST PURCHASED THE AIRCRAFT. THEY WERE FERRYING THE PLANE FROM NEW YORK STATE TO CALIFORNIA. THE PILOT REPORTED THAT DURING TAKEOFF, HE LIFTED OFF NEAR THE MID-POINT OF THE RUNWAY AND HELD A FLAT ATTITUDE TO GAIN AIRSPEED. HE FELT THAT THERE WAS NOT ENOUGH CLIMB DEVELOPING TO GET OVER TREES AND TURNED LEFT 15 DEGREES. WITNESSES REPORTED THAT THE PLANE TOOK OFF AT A RELATIVELY SLOW SPEED AND NEVER SEEMED TO ACCELERATE. AFTER TURNING, THE PLANE MUSHED INTO STEADILY RISING TERRAIN. AN INSPECTION OF THE ENGINE CONTROLS REVEALED THAT THE FUEL PRIMER WAS IN AN UNLOCKED POSITION. THIS COULD HAVE RESULTED IN A RICH MIXTURE RESULTING IN A LOSS OF POWER. THE DENSITY ALTITUDE WAS ABOUT 6800 FT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW82FQA19
- Event ID
- 20020917X03472
- Case number
- FTW82FQA19
- 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: dc3053bc08207ecff9a70115fff6ee90e8c06a0279efee14c158d85aa8197f42; retrieved 2026-09-22T03:05:06.210Z.