Date:	Friday 4 April 1997
Time:	00:16
Type:	Aviation Traders ATL-98 Carvair
Owner/operator:	Custom Air Service
Registration:	N83FA
MSN:	5/10365
Year of manufacture:	1944
Total airframe hrs:	50558 hours
Engine model:	Pratt & Whitney R-2000-7M2
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed, written off
Category:	Accident
Location:	Griffin-Spalding County Airport, GA -   United States of America
Phase:	Take off
Nature:	Ferry/positioning
Departure airport:	Griffin-Spalding County Airport, GA
Destination airport:	Americus-Souther Field Airport, GA (KACJ)
Investigating agency:	NTSB
Confidence Rating:	Accident investigation report completed and information captured

Narrative:
An IFR flight plan was filed by the crew for a flight to Americus, GA to pick up a load of automobile parts for transfer to Rockford, IL.
During the airplane's takeoff roll on runway 14, a witness noted that the color of the no. 1 engine exhaust flame changed from blue to yellow, accompanied by an audible change in the engine power level. The nose of the airplane yawed left and the left wing dipped. This occurred when the airplane was about 3/4 down the 3,700 foot runway. The Carvair overran the runway, ran across Zebulon Road and slammed into the vacant Piggly Wiggly building near the Spalding Square parking lot and caught fire.

PROBABLE CAUSE: "The flight crew's inadequate procedures, during a rejected takeoff following a possible engine malfunction at a critical time in the takeoff, and the second pilot's physical impairment. "

NTSB Identification: ATL97FA057
Cargo Airplane Strikes Building During Rejected Takeoff

photo (c) Ryan Hales

photo (c) Kenneth M. Mooney; Griffin-Spalding County Airport, GA; 1995

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