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Atlas / NTSB / ATL89FA188

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event ATL89FA188

1989-08-02 ALBANY, Georgia, United States Airport · ABY Fatal 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N11TP

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

PIZZUTI THOMAS M SH2

Year of manufacture

1992

Engine

LYCOMING O&VO-360 SER (180 hp)

Seats / Engines

2 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19920615

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A02B91

Registrant of record

TIENKEN HENRY N

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

THE FATIGUE FAILURE OF THE SUPERCHARGER INTERMEDIATE DRIVE GEAR SHAFT (GEAR TOOTH), WHICH RESULTED IN A PARTIAL LOSS OF POWER, AND THE PILOT'S INITIATION OF LIFT-OFF BEFORE REACHING VMC AIRSPEED. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE WORN INTERMEDIATE DRIVE GEAR SHAFT, THE PILOT'S OPERATION OF THE AIRCRAFT ABOVE ITS MAXIMUM CERTIFIED GROSS WEIGHT LIMIT, AND THE HIGH DENSITY ALTITUDE.

Factual narrative

DURING TAKEOFF, THE ACFT ROLLED ABRUPTLY TO THE RIGHT AFTER LIFT-OFF. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE RIGHT WINGTIP STRUCK THE SURFACE, THEN THE ACFT CARTWHEELED & CRASHED. THE FUSELAGE WAS DESTROYED BY A POST-CRASH FIRE. AN EXAM OF THE ENGS REVEALED THAT THE RIGHT ENG SUPERCHARGER INTERMEDIATE DRIVE GEAR SHAFT HAD BECOME WORN & ONE OF ITS GEAR TEETH HAD FAILED FROM FATIGUE. THERE WAS EVIDENCE THAT AN OUT-OF-MESH CONDITION OCCURRED, WHICH RESULTED IN A PARTIAL LOSS OF ENG POWER DURING TAKEOFF. ALSO, THE ACFT WAS ESTIMATED TO BE 679 LBS OVER ITS MAX CERTIFIED GROSS WEIGHT. DENSITY ALT WAS CALCULATED TO BE ABOUT 2000 FT. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1989_ATL89FA188.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. 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 ↗