FTW94LA175 · Bellanca 17-30A
Bellanca 17-30A · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From Del Rio International Airport (DRT) to Austin Bergstrom International Airport (AUS)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW94LA175
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Bellanca 17-30A
- Aircraft type
- Bellanca 17
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N14773
- Operator
- Stroud, Merle C. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Del Rio International Airport (DRT)To Austin Bergstrom International Airport (AUS), Austin, TX
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Initial climb
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Total loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Fuel starvation
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Electrical system › Fire
- Exhaust system, exhaust cone/tailpipe(jet engine) › Leak
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Fuel system, electric boost pump › Fire
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING THE TAKEOFF INITIAL CLIMB, THE PILOT NOTICED AN ODOR FROM THE EXHAUST SYSTEM AND AN ENGINE SURGE. THE PILOT SWITCH FUEL TANKS AND RETURNED FOR LANDING. HE AND A MECHANIC CHECKED THE AIRPLANE AND DECIDED THE SMELL WAS FROM A CLEANING SOLVENT ON THE EXHAUST SYSTEM. THE PILOT STARTED THE AIRPLANE AND SATISFACTORILY COMPLETED THE GROUND CHECKS. DURING THE TAKEOFF INITIAL CLIMB AT ABOUT 400 FEET ABOVE THE GROUND, THE ENGINE STARTED LOOSING POWER AND THE PILOT AGAIN SMELLED THE ODOR. DURING THE FORCED LANDING IN ROUGH AND UNEVEN DESERT BRUSH TERRAIN THE MAIN GEAR FOLDED. THE AIRPLANE SLID 120 FEET, SPUN AROUND STRIKING A VEHICLE AND CAME TO REST. THE EXHAUST SYSTEM EXHIBITED PHYSICAL EVIDENCE OF LEAKING. NEAR THE EXHAUST WAS A FIRE DAMAGED BUNDLE OF ELECTRICAL SYSTEM WIRES. THE WIRES WERE NEAR THE FUEL PUMP.
Probable cause
FUEL STARVATION INDUCED POWER LOSS DUE TO AN EXHAUST SYSTEM LEAK RESULTING IN AN ELECTRICAL SYSTEM INFLIGHT FIRE IN THE AREA OF THE FUEL PUMP. A FACTOR WAS THE LACK OF SUITABLE TERRAIN FOR THE FORCED LANDING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW94LA175
- Event ID
- 20001206X01299
- Case number
- FTW94LA175
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 9e05c92f64048f9cee3264135640185f7a8ea26a2ac24aa81248cc8da7164afd; retrieved 2026-09-21T22:38:22.397Z.