FTW95LA161 · Gardner VARIEZE
Gardner VARIEZE · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) on approach
From McKinney National Airport (TKI) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW95LA161
- 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
Gardner VARIEZE
- Aircraft type
- Gardner VARIEZE
- 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
- N13WM
- Operator
- Cannon, John · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From McKinney National Airport (TKI), McKinney, TXTo not recorded
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Throttle/power lever › Jammed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE ON A 1.5 MILE FINAL APPROACH AT ADDISON AIRPORT (ADS) THE PILOT WAS REQUESTED BY THE TOWER CONTROLLER TO SLOW DOWN FOR TRAFFIC SEQUENCING. POWER WAS REDUCED TO SLOW DOWN. AS THE PILOT ATTEMPTED TO INCREASE THROTTLE TO MAINTAIN ALTITUDE, HE NOTICED IT WAS 'JAMMED.' PRIOR TO REDUCING POWER, THE PILOT SAW THAT THE KNOB ASSEMBLY OF THE THROTTLE CONTROL LEVER HAD 'DROPPED OFF.' DURING A LANDING TO AN OPEN FIELD, THE AIRPLANE STRUCK A BERM. EXAMINATION OF THE THROTTLE QUADRANT REVEALED THAT THE THROTTLE CONTROL HAD BECOME MISALIGNED. WHEN THE THROTTLE CONTROL WAS ALIGNED, THE THROTTLE WOULD MOVE FULL TRAVEL FORE AND AFT.
Probable cause
THE JAMMED THROTTLE. FACTORS WERE THE KNOB BECOMING LOOSE AND SEPARATING FROM THE THROTTLE LEVER, AND THE LACK OF SUITABLE TERRAIN AVAILABLE FOR THE FORCED LANDING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW95LA161
- Event ID
- 20001207X03286
- Case number
- FTW95LA161
- 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: b9d6db451e5475d3912f15b9ea0d3ffa55ffef699c5e94f51e9a2e3cfd9bb607; retrieved 2026-09-21T22:21:19.442Z.