ERA12LA442 · Piper PA-28-140
Piper PA-28-140 · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) during initial climb
From Roscoe Field (82J) to Roscoe Field (82J)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA12LA442
- 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-28-140
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N6258J
- Operator
- Ard Jonathan L
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Roscoe Field (82J), Pensacola, FLTo Roscoe Field (82J), Pensacola, FL
- 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
- Defining eventThe 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 (partial)
- 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
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During initial climb, as the airplane crossed over a tree line at the end of the runway, both pilots noticed that the engine was producing only partial power. The pilots attempted to return to the departure runway operating on partial engine power; however, the engine sputtered and lost more power. The airplane impacted a swamp before it reached the runway. Examination of the wreckage revealed that adequate fuel remained in both wing fuel tanks. Additionally, examination of the engine and its accessories did not reveal any preimpact mechanical malfunctions that would have precluded normal operation. Comparison of the recorded temperature and dew point to a carburetor icing chart revealed no susceptibility to carburetor ice at the time of the accident.
Probable cause
A partial loss of engine power during initial climb for reasons that could not be determined because examination of the engine did not reveal any anomalies that would have precluded normal operation.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA12LA442
- Event ID
- 20120712X21920
- Case number
- ERA12LA442
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: 9542eb4dc2a9705172255905edde967fab28723fbfecfbc7c486d599c0b53c8c; retrieved 2026-09-15T18:52:17.173Z.