NTSB Factual Report

On March 10, 2018, at 1646 central standard time, a Czech Sport Aircraft a.s. Piper Sport airplane, N422PS, impacted terrain after a loss of engine power at Addison Airport (ADS), Addison, Texas. The flight instructor and passenger sustained serious injuries and the airplane sustained substantial damage. The airplane was registered to a private individual and operated by Excite Aircraft, Inc., doing business as US Sport Aircraft under the provisions of Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 as an instructional flight. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident and no flight plan had been filed. The local flight departed ADS at 1644.

A review of the ADS air traffic control (ATC) recording revealed that at 1642 the pilot called ATC for a departure clearance while holding short of runway 15. At 1643 ATC instructed the pilot to line up and wait on runway 15. At 1644 ATC cleared the airplane for takeoff. At 1646 the pilot stated to ATC "we're having vapor lock, we need to come back and land." There were no further communications from the pilot.

Several witnesses observed the accident airplane during the event and reported that the airplane was flying west over the southeast side of the airport. The airplane descended out of view behind several hangars and then climbed above the hangars while flying south. The airplane made a left climbing turn toward the runway and then descended again until it impacted terrain on the east side of runway 33 threshold.

A review of the airport surveillance video revealed that at 1646 the airplane was flying southeast above the end of runway 15. The airplane descended in a wings level attitude before it made sharp left turn and impacted the ground.

The airplane came to rest in the grass between taxiway A and runway 15/33 (figure 1).