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Atlas / NTSB / ATL87LA140

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event ATL87LA140

1987-05-22 HUNTERSVILLE, North Carolina, United States Airport · NC05 Serious 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Aircraft involved

Factual narrative

THE PLT REPORTED THAT HE CLOSED THE THROTTLE TO SIMULATE AN ENGINE FAILURE AFTER TAKEOFF FROM RWY 06, AT ABOUT 400-500 FT AGL. HE SUBSEQUENTLY MADE A 180 DEGREE TURN BACK TOWARD THE ARPT TO PRACTICE A SIMULATED FORCED LDG, AND THE ACFT SINK RATE INCREASED TO A GREATER RATE THAN 'EXPECTED'. HE THEN ADDED FULL THROTTLE, BUT THE ENGINE DID NOT RESPOND. THE ACFT IMPACTED GRASSY TERRAIN SHORT OF AND TO THE RIGHT OF THE RWY, AND SLID ABOUT 130 FEET. A POST-CRASH FIRE ENSUED. THE PLT STATED THAT HE HAD 11 TOTAL FLT HRS IN THIS MAKE AND MODEL, ALL OF WHICH WERE OBTAINED IN THIS ACFT. HE NOTED THAT THE ACFT HAD SAT UNUSED FOR THREE YEARS PRIOR TO HIS PURCHASING IT, AND THAT IT HAD RECEIVED AN ANNUAL INSPECTION A WEEK PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT. THE ENGINE CARBURETOR WAS REPORTEDLY EQUIPPED WITH A 'LEATHER-SKIRT' TYPE ACCELERATOR PUMP. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1987_ATL87LA140.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 (engine failure). 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 ↗