ERA14LA316 · Czech Sport Aircraft AS PIPER SPORT
Czech Sport Aircraft AS PIPER SPORT · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) during initial climb
From Peachtree City Falcon Field (FFC) to Newnan Coweta County Airport (CCO)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA14LA316
- 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
Czech Sport Aircraft AS PIPER SPORT
- Aircraft type
- Czech Sport PIPER SPORT
- 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
- N957MD
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Peachtree City Falcon Field (FFC), Peachtree City, GATo Newnan Coweta County Airport (CCO), Newnan, GA
- Aircraft age
- About 4 years (built 2010)
- 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
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
**This report was modified on March 17, 2021. Please see the public docket for this accident to view the original report.**
The private pilot, who was aware that the light sport airplane's engine had not been functioning normally, took off to fly to another airport where an engine-specific mechanic was located. Downloaded avionics data indicated that, during the airplane's initial climb after takeoff, engine rpm decreased about 14%. Beyond the end of the runway, about 50 ft above ground level, the airplane's pitch attitude increased to about 19°, while roll increased to about 28°. The airplane exceeded its critical angle of attack and entered an aerodynamic stall, impacting the ground in a nose-low attitude. Due to his injuries, the pilot could not recall the accident sequence of events or his actions after takeoff.
Subsequent examination of the engine revealed that the spark plugs were mostly black in color and some were encrusted with debris. It is likely that, during the takeoff, a fouled spark plug did not provide adequate voltage to the firing tip, and a cylinder did not fire properly. Fouled spark plugs are consistent with a very rich fuel mixture; however, the reason for the rich mixture could not be determined.
Probable cause
The pilot's incomplete assessment of the risk presented by operating an airplane with an unresolved history of engine power losses; a partial loss of engine power during takeoff due to operation of the engine with an excessively rich fuel/air mixture; and the pilot's subsequent exceedance of the airplane's critical angle of attack, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall and impact with trees.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA14LA316
- Event ID
- 20140630X80956
- Case number
- ERA14LA316
- 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: 8a724629e079dd8700d1601025cddcbdf3f5b7ccba1ee6247ad8f037655e8d7a; retrieved 2026-09-16T00:46:44.340Z.