LAX04LA049 · Piper PA-44-180
Piper PA-44-180 · Accident: loss of engine power during takeoff
From Phoenix Deer Valley Airport (KDVT) to Phoenix Deer Valley Airport (KDVT)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX04LA049
- 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
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-44-180
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-44
- 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
- N971PA
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Phoenix Deer Valley Airport (KDVT), Phoenix, AZTo Phoenix Deer Valley Airport (KDVT), Phoenix, 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 · 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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(cfi) › Directional control, not maintained
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Remedial action, inadequate
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Supervision, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane veered off of the runway after the left engine lost power during the takeoff roll. The purpose of the flight was an intermediate stage-check for the student, prior to his multi-engine checkride. The preflight and run-up were uneventful. Approximately 5 seconds after the takeoff roll commenced, the left engine lost power and the airplane veered to the left. The CFI assumed control of the airplane, closing both throttles. The airplane continued turning to the left and the airplane departed the runway surface. The right main gear collapsed and the right engine impacted the ground and stopped. The left engine was idling after the airplane came to a stop. The left engine was test-run following the accident; no mechanical malfunctions were noted.
Probable cause
the flight instructor's inadequate supervision of the flight and delayed remedial action, which resulted in a loss of directional control. The reason for the partial power loss in the left engine was not determined.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX04LA049
- Event ID
- 20031201X01971
- Case number
- LAX04LA049
- 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: 3a695f6a77124101d42d302f23c51cca705c2d4239a0deedf3dd19b2248d68b1; retrieved 2026-09-22T08:09:37.948Z.