NTSB Identification: ERA16LA051
14 CFR Part 91: General Aviation
Accident occurred Tuesday, November 24, 2015 in Lawrenceville, GA
Aircraft: PIPER PA 28-180, registration: N3971R
Injuries: 1 Serious, 1 Minor.
This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed. NTSB investigators may not have traveled in support of this investigation and used data provided by various sources to prepare this aircraft accident report.
On November 24, 2015, about 1600 eastern standard time, a Piper PA-28-180, N3971R, operated by a private individual, was substantially damaged during a forced landing into trees, following a total loss of engine power during initial climb from Gwinnett County Airport (LZU), Lawrenceville, Georgia. The flight instructor was seriously injured and the student pilot incurred minor injuries. The instructional flight was conducted under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and no flight plan was filed for the planned local flight.
The flight instructor stated that shortly after turning onto the crosswind leg in the airport traffic pattern for runway 7, the engine lost all power. The flight instructor then took control of the airplane and elected not to attempt to glide back to the airport as the airplane was about 500 feet above ground level. He subsequently performed a forced landing straight ahead into trees.
The student pilot stated that earlier in that day, they departed LZU with approximately 34 gallons of fuel on a round-trip cross-country flight. After landing at the destination airport, they completed two more full-stop landings before returning to LZU. After landing uneventfully at LZU, the flight instructor wanted the student pilot to perform one more good landing before concluding the lesson. Everything seemed normal until the student pilot turned the airplane onto a crosswind leg of the airport traffic pattern, at which time the engine lost all power without any sputtering or roughness. He further stated, "It sounded like we had turned off the engine after a lesson: just a smooth shutdown as if the mixture was dropped to full lean after parking…" The student pilot added that the flight instructor was almost able to restart the engine, but it lost all power again.
Examination of the wreckage by a Federal Aviation Administration inspector revealed damage to both wings and the fuselage. The engine was retained for further examination.
FAA Flight Standards District Office: FAA Atlanta FSDO-11
GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — Channel 2 Action News got an up-close look at the plane that crashed just feet from homes in Gwinnett County.
The plane’s wing was ripped off and a seat was found in someone’s yard.
The pilot told Channel 2’s Tony Thomas that he and his teenage co-pilot were practicing a touch and go at Briscoe Field Tuesday afternoon when the engine cut out.
The pilot, asking not to be identified, told Thomas that of all the options he had, landing in the trees was his safest way to go.
Salvage crews loaded up the pieces of the small plane Wednesday. The pilot told Thomas that his main goal was to avoid injuring anyone on the ground when his plane started going down Tuesday.
“How did you do it?” Thomas asked the pilot.
The pilot said he lost engine power and had very little time to react.
“I wanted to land on this road but when I saw that there was a moving car here, meaning people, I had to avoid that, so my only other options were houses or a tree,” the pilot said. “I saw a fork in the tree so I tried to get it, fit in between the two. And tried to get the wings to hit.”
The plane split apart. Most of the it came to rest against a fence. Nearby residents ran to help.
“It just crash landed in the trees. And it's only God that they are still alive because it's in between the trees,” said Nicole Moreland, who called 911 after seeing the crash.
Federal investigators spent quite a bit of time Wednesday talking with the pilot and copilot and looking over what's left of the single engine plane. They spent a lot of time looking at the cockpit area and the engine.
Also on site, was the teenager who was also aboard and his family, the owners of the plane. It could take months for investigators to reach a final conclusion as to what exactly happened.
“When I see it I think I'm lucky. I had a copilot from above helping me. There’s no doubt about it,” the pilot told Thomas.
When Thomas asked the pilot how soon he planned on flying again, he quickly responded, ‘As soon as I can.’”
Story and video: http://www.wsbtv.com
A pilot who crashed a small plane in Lawrenceville on Tuesday — after he said he lost engine power at about 1,600 feet and clipped some trees on the way down — attributes his survival to to a higher power.
“I think I’m lucky. I had a co-pilot from above helping me, there’s no doubt about that,” the man, who did not want to be identified, told Channel 2 Action News.
The pilot, who is in his middle 20s and from Duluth, and a teenage passenger from Johns Creek, suffered only minor injuries when the Piper 28 single-engine aircraft lost a wing and went down in the backyard of a home on Old Fountain Road near Amhearst Mill Drive. The location is about two miles north of the Gwinnett County airport.
The pilot was practicing takeoffs and landings when the crash happened, according to a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration. The 1971 Piper is registered to Quinn Resnick of Alpharetta, according to online FAA records. Channel 2 said the plane is owned by the father of the teenage passenger.
The plane grazed the roof of one home but there was no structural damage, and there was no fire from the crash. But debris was scattered along Old Fountain Road.
The pilot and his passenger met with federal investigators Wednesday morning and looked over the plane to help determine what happened, Channel 2 reported. The FAA examined the engine, according to Channel 2.
Source: http://www.ajc.com
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