Piper PA-28-161 | N81250

The DTSB determines the Probable Cause of this accident to be the student, or the instructor allowing the aircraft to enter an aggressive right hand turn after takeoff from runway 27L. The aircraft likely encountered a loss or reduction of thrust and one of the persons turned to the right in hopes of an immediate return to runway 09L, landing opposite direction. There was a witness to the accident that observed the aircraft in a very low right hand turn just prior to the aircraft entering a full stall nose down condition. The aircraft impacted water with such force that one wing was separated at impact from the rest of the fuselage. The engine had recently been changed from a Lycoming o-320-D3G to a Lycoming O-320-D2A, the latter of which relied upon a DC power source for electronic ignition. The NTSB preliminary report states: “Based on the available information, it is likely that the engine lost power during takeoff and the pilots attempted to return to the runway with insufficient altitude to complete the turn.” The Probable Cause for this accident is specifically “not” the loss of engine power. The Probable Cause of this accident was the attempted IMPOSSIBLE TURN, which once again was demonstrated to be impossible.

The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident to be:
A loss of engine power for reasons that could not be determined.

The DTSB recommends that all pilots of all aircraft rehearse and become conditioned for both LOTOT and ROTOT, and commit to landing wings level straight ahead, at the slowest speed possible in the event of inadvertent power problems encountered down low and with insufficient energy for a safe return. Straight Ahead. With a few rare exceptions, the impossible turn is normally not possible.