FTW95FA069 · Piper PA-32RT
Piper PA-32RT · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Addison Airport (ADS) to San Antonio International Airport (SAT)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW95FA069
- 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
- 1 · 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
Piper PA-32RT
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-32
- 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
- N21590
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Addison Airport (ADS), Dallas, TXTo San Antonio International Airport (SAT), 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
- En route · descent
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRCRAFT LOST POWER WHILE DESCENDING APPROXIMATELY 4 MILES NORTH OF SAN ANTONIO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT (SAT). AFTER THE LOSS OF POWER, THE PILOT-RATED PASSENGER MANIPULATED THE FLIGHT CONTROLS WHILE THE PILOT ATTEMPTED A RESTART THAT WAS UNSUCCESSFUL. THE AIRPLANE CAME TO REST IN A GRASSY FIELD ADJACENT TO POWER LINES AND TREES ABOUT 1 1/2 MILES NORTHWEST OF RUNWAY 12L. EXAMINATION OF THE AIRPLANE AND ENGINE DID NOT REVEAL ANY STRUCTURAL OR MECHANICAL DEFECTS. TESTING OF THE ENGINE DRIVEN FUEL PUMP ACCESSORY REVEALED THAT IT WAS FLOWING FUEL FROM THE OVERBOARD DRAIN AT A RATE OF 1/2 GALLON PER MINUTE; HOWEVER, IT WAS STILL PUMPING FUEL TO THE ENGINE AT 25 PSI AND 275 LBS/HR. ON SITE EXAMINATION OF THE AIRCRAFT REVEALED USABLE FUEL IN BOTH WING TANKS. TEARDOWN OF THE PUMP REVEALED 'O' RINGS THAT WERE WORN AND DISPLAYED SQUARE CROSS SECTIONS. ADDITIONALLY, THE INLET SCREEN TO THE FUEL SERVO HAD NON-METALLIC DEBRIS IN THE FITTING AND THE SCREEN WAS OBSERVED TO BE PARTIALLY CLOGGED. THE ANOMALIES FOUND WITH THE FUEL SYSTEM ACCESSORIES WERE INCONCLUSIVE. THE REASON FOR THE LOSS OF ENGINE POWER COULD NOT BE DETERMINED.
Probable cause
THE LOSS OF ENGINE POWER FOR UNDETERMINED REASONS. A FACTOR RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WAS: THE LACK OF A SUITABLE AREA FOR THE FORCED LANDING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW95FA069
- Event ID
- 20001206X02712
- Case number
- FTW95FA069
- 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: c8556bb83641beb03b58658634475693c92a7d1d88d126a552a24eda724bd032; retrieved 2026-09-20T23:54:47.608Z.