ATL03LA113 · Aero Vodochody Aero Works L39C
Aero Vodochody Aero Works L39C · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From Northeast Alabama Regional Airport (KGAD) to Muskegon County Airport (KMKG)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL03LA113
- 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
- 1 · 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Aero Vodochody Aero Works L39C
- Aircraft type
- Aero Vodochody Aero Works L39
- 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
- N8125R
- Operator
- Elmo Eugene Hahn III
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Northeast Alabama Regional Airport (KGAD), Gadsden, ALTo Muskegon County Airport (KMKG), Muskegon, MI
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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 › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Turbine assembly › Foreign object damage
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The flight was departing with heavy rain and thunderstorms in the vicinity. During takeoff roll, a witness observed debris in the air around the airplane as soon as it lifted off the runway, then heard two "thump" noises from the engine followed by engine whining. The airplane continued airborne, then veered left and descended. The airplane rolled approximately 90 degrees, and the pilot ejected. Objects that had been stowed in the nose compartment of the airplane were found on the runway near the point where the airplane rotated. The left access panel for the nose compartment was found separated from the airframe with the upper hinges absent. The left panel displayed fire damage and extensive crush deformation with the fasteners on the panel lower edge attached. The right access panel for the nose compartment was found attached at the upper hinges to the upper nose compartment structure. The right panel and nose compartment structure displayed no fire damage and exhibited minor bending deformation and scratches in the paint. The fasteners on the right panel lower edge were absent. According to a chart published by Czech Jet, for single-seat ejection from the aircraft, the lowest minimum altitude for ejection with 90 degrees of bank is approximately 1,100 feet above the ground, and the lowest minimum altitude for ejection with zero degrees of bank is less than zero feet above the ground.
Probable cause
The loss of engine power during takeoff due to foreign object damage, which resulted in an in-flight collision with terrain during forced landing. Factors were the pilot's inadequate preflight inspection of the airplane, his failure to secure the cargo/baggage door, and his failure to maintain control of the airplane prior to ejecting from the airplane.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL03LA113
- Event ID
- 20030707X01027
- Case number
- ATL03LA113
- 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: 5a9b80acb85f4ce2c5fb1c328423fac1975830facea3816bb7e2fa38ce7b712f; retrieved 2026-09-20T19:05:34.746Z.