ERA17LA057 · Piper PA28 140
Piper PA28 140 · Accident: loss of engine power (total) during initial climb
From Columbus Airport (CSG) to Columbus Airport (CSG)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA17LA057
- 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 PA28 140
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA28
- 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
- N41565
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Columbus Airport (CSG), Columbus, GATo Columbus Airport (CSG), Columbus, GA
- Aircraft age
- About 42 years (built 1974)
- 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 (total)
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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
The flight instructor reported that ground operations were normal and that he observed 18 gallons of fuel in each wing tank. The engine started normally, and the magneto checks were within limits. During the initial climb after takeoff, about 1 mile past the departure end of the runway, the engine vibrated and experienced a total loss of power. He assumed the controls from the pilot receiving instruction, and confirmed the fuel selector position, checked to ensure the fuel pump was on, and turned on the carburetor heat. The engine did not regain power, and the airplane continued straight ahead until it settled into trees.
Examination of the airframe and engine did not reveal evidence of any preaccident malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. The fuel tanks were breached during the accident sequence. The atmospheric conditions at the time of the accident were conducive to serious icing at glide power. However, given that the engine did not respond after the application of carburetor heat and it was operating at takeoff power, it is unlikely that the loss of engine power was due to carburetor icing. The reason for the loss of engine power could not be determined.
Probable cause
A total loss of engine power during initial climb for reasons that could not be determined because postaccident examination of the airframe and engine revealed no evidence of any anomalies that would have precluded normal operation.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA17LA057
- Event ID
- 20161125X12648
- Case number
- ERA17LA057
- 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: 00c16958554afc66c5464f1cffead5800336443a6b3f5781d06fa13f458a246d; retrieved 2026-09-16T04:51:32.597Z.