ATL82IA281 · Piper PA-34-22OT
Montgomery Aviation Piper PA-34-22OT · Incident: airframe, component or system failure during takeoff
From Montgomery, AL to Montgomery, AL
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL82IA281
- 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
- Incident
- 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-34-22OT
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-34
- 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
- N220HB
- Operator
- Montgomery Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Montgomery, ALTo Montgomery, AL
- 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 · roll/run
- 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
- Minor
Cause areas
- Manufacturer › Procedures/directives, not corrected
- Propeller system/accessories, counterweight › Overtorque
- Propeller system/accessories, counterweight › Separation
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Montgomery, AL, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT STATED THAT A NORMAL RUNUP WAS COMPLETED BEFORE TAKEOFF. DURING THE TAKEOFF ROLL, THE AIRCRAFT ACCELE- RATED THROUGH 75 KNOTS WHEN A LOUD BANG WAS HEARD FROM THE LEFT SIDE. THE TAKEOFF WAS ABORTED AND A ROLLOUT ACCOMPLISHED. EXAMINATION OF THE LEFT ENGINE REVEALED THAT ONE OF THREE LEFT PROPELLER COUNTERWEIGHTS WERE MISSING. EACH COUNTERWEIGHT IS SECURED BY A SINGLE BOLT AND LOCKING NUT. EXAMINATION OF THE BOLT TUB REVEALED EVIDENCE OF PRE-LOAD STRESS. A SERVICE BULLETIN WAS ISSUED ON MARCH 03 1982, STATING THAT TO REDUCE PRE-LOAD STRESS ON THE COUNTERWEIGHT BOLT, THE TORQUE SPECIFICATION HAS BEEN REDUCED FROM 105-100 FOOT POUNDS TO 65-60 TORQUE POUNDS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL82IA281
- Event ID
- 20020917X04286
- Case number
- ATL82IA281
- 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: d413de545aebefcbff24a37b5d58f2731a6577f3d7a4cb1f2499e0ec47ec7c4e; retrieved 2026-09-24T00:54:44.184Z.