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Atlas / NTSB / FTW85FA081

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event FTW85FA081

1984-12-20 WACO, Texas, United States Fatal 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N95TC

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

PIPER PA-31-350

Year of manufacture

1983 · 1 years old at event

Engine

LYCOMING TI0-540 SER (310 hp)

Seats / Engines

8 seats · 2 engines

Last airworthiness date

19830527

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S AD33FA

Registrant of record

MMEC AIR LLC

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Factual narrative

NO EVIDENCE OF PREIMPACT MECHANICAL FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION WAS NOTED DURING WRECKAGE EXAMINATION. THE FAA OPERATIONS INSPECTOR WHO WAS ON BOARD AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT STATED THERE WERE NO AIRCRAFT PROBLEMS INVOLVED. THE PIC, WHO WASIN THE PROCESS OF TAKING HER TYPE RATING CHECK RIDE IN THE AIRCRAFT, FAILED TO MAINTAIN DIRECTIONAL CONTROL DURING A SIMULATED ENGINE FAILURE AFTER REACHING V1 SPEED DURING THE TAKEOFF RUN. THE TOTAL FLIGHT EXPERIENCE FOR THE PIC WAS 2454 HOURS, MOST OF WHICH WAS ACQUIRED IN MULTIENGINE AIRCRAFT, WITH 387 HOURS BEING IN THE MAKE AND MODEL AIRCRAFT INVOLVED IN THE ACCIDENT. ALL LISTED EXPERIENCE IN THIS MAKE AND MODEL WAS OBTAINED AS SECOND-IN-COMMAND. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1984_FTW85FA081.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 ↗