MIA07LA129 · Piper J3C-65
Piper J3C-65 · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From Andersonville, GA to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA07LA129
- 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 J3C-65
- Aircraft type
- Piper J3
- 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
- N5721N
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Andersonville, GATo not recorded
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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 › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to an FAA inspector, he interviewed several witnesses who said that the pilot was giving airplane rides from his private grass airstrip. On the fifth and final airplane ride, during initial climb after takeoff, the engine stopped. The inspector said that witnesses told him that they saw the airplane turn about 180 degrees toward the departure runway, but it descended quickly and impacted the ground in a level attitude. The on scene examination revealed the presence of fuel, and no obvious anomalies. An examination was performed by the NTSB, and a representative from the engine manufacturer. During the examination, crash related damaged parts were replaced, and a club propeller was fitted. The engine was then test run. Initially, when fuel was added, the fuel poured from the carburetor, consistent with the needle valve having been stuck in the open position due to an obstruction. After tapping on the wall of the carburetor, the obstruction was cleared, and fuel stopped flowing out of the carburetor. The test run was then completed without further anomalies. A teardown examination of the carburetor revealed debris within the carburetor float bowl large enough to block the needle valve, or fuel metering orifice.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper decision to make a 180-degree turn at low altitude to return to the departure runway following a loss of engine power during takeoff-initial climb. A factor in the accident was contamination in the carburetor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA07LA129
- Event ID
- 20070814X01186
- Case number
- MIA07LA129
- 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: 5c51c0a4155102ad8235a23a57070c21708e4c64f883ae0067733f60779295c3; retrieved 2026-09-21T08:45:55.086Z.