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Atlas / NTSB / ATL87FA136

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event ATL87FA136

1987-05-10 COLLIERVILLE, Tennessee, United States Airport · 54M Fatal 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N25020

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

POWRACHUTE PEGASUS

Year of manufacture

2002

Engine

ROTAX 582SER (65 hp)

Seats / Engines

2 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

20100110

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A25A35

Registrant of record

GRAVES CHARLES L

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Factual narrative

IT WAS REPTD THAT THE PLT WAS TAKING HIS PAX UP FOR A LCL PHOTOGRAPHIC FLT AT THE REQ OF THE PAX. WITNESSES REPTD THAT THE ACFT REMAINED OVER THE APT FOR TWO OR THREE CIRCUITS AND THEN DEPTD THE AREA IN THE DIR OF COLLIERVILLE. WITNESSES NEAR THE CRASH SITE REPTD THAT THE ACFT WAS MANEUVERING AT LOW ALTITUDE. IT WAS THEN REPTD THAT THE ENGINE SPUTTERED AND THE ACFT WAS OBSERVED TO BE IN A NOSE HIGH ATTITUDE. THE ACFT WAS THEN OBSERVED TO ROLL TO THE RIGHT AND DIVE INTO A RESIDENCE. INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT CONDITIONS WERE CONDUCIVE TO SERIOUS CARBURETOR ICING. IN ADDITION, THE ENG PRIMER WAS FOUND UNLOCKED AND FOUR CYL HOLD DOWN STUDS FOR THE #2 CYL WERE FOUND FAILED AS A RESULT OF FATIGUE CRACKS. AN EXHAUST CRACK IN THE #2 CYL EXHAUST MANIFOLD EXHIBITED EVIDENCE OF A 1/2 INCH LONG BLOWBY LEAK. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1987_ATL87FA136.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Related research

What the literature says.

Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (icing). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.

Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗