Piper PA28 accident near Foley, AL
On May 6, 2019, a Piper PA28 (airplane) was involved in an accident near Foley, AL. 1 person died. Damage to the aircraft: destroyed.
- Date
- May 6, 2019
- Place
- Foley, AL
- Aircraft
- Piper PA28 · Airplane
- Injuries
- 1 fatal, 1 serious, 0 minor
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Position
- 30.433°N, 87.702°W
- NTSB ID
- 20190506X45027
Official records · ERA19FA164
- Public docket: reports, statements and exhibits from the investigation
NTSB summary
HISTORY OF FLIGHTOn May 6, 2019, at 1247 central daylight time, a Piper PA-28-140, N5542U, was destroyed when it impacted terrain shortly after takeoff from Foley Municipal Airport (5R4), Foley, Alabama. The flight instructor was seriously injured, and the student pilot was fatally injured. The airplane was owned and operated by Lightning Aviation as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 91 instructional flight. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed in the area, and no flight plan was filed for the local flight. According to a witness, who was a flight paramedic on another instructional flight at 5R4, he saw the accident airplane take off from runway 36 after a touch-and-go landing. He then heard the flight instructor announce on the radio, "My engine just quit." He saw the accident airplane pitch up "like a power-on stall" then "lean to the left to start a spin" about 300-400 ft above ground level (agl). He added that it was only about 3 seconds from the time he saw the airplane in a nose-high pitch attitude to when it was descending toward the ground. A flight instructor who was entering the traffic pattern at 5R4 reported that the airplane seemed to be making an aggressive left turn as if returning to the airport. According to another flight instructor who flew the airplane the morning of the accident, the airplane "didn't seem to climb very well," which he attributed to high density altitude. He stated that, at the time of the accident, the accident flight instructor was conducting simulated engine-out emergency procedures in the pattern as touch-and-go
Probable cause
A partial loss of engine power due to a stuck exhaust valve and the flight instructor's exceedance of the airplane's critical angle of attack following the loss of power, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall at low altitude.
More accidents in AL
- Beech C99, Jul 10, 1991
- Cessna 421A, Jun 22, 1983
- Cessna 421C, Jul 9, 2011
- Piper PA 31, Aug 14, 2016
- Beech 95-B55B, Dec 5, 1992
Browse: Alabama · Piper aircraft
Source: NTSB aviation accident database (US government, public domain). Findings may be preliminary or later revised by the NTSB. Not a complete global record.
