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FTW95LA351 · Taylorcraft DCO-65

19 Aug 1995 · Abilene, TX, United States

Taylorcraft DCO-65 · Accident: loss of engine power while maneuvering

From 6F4 to an unrecorded destination

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Event

NTSB case
FTW95LA351
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

Taylorcraft DCO-65

Aircraft type
Taylorcraft DCO-65
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
N57527
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From 6F4To 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
Maneuvering
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
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
Stall
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

  • Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

THE AIRPLANE CIRCLED THE AIRPORT IN A LOOSE FORMATION WITH TWO OTHER WWII VINTAGE AIRPLANES. THE FLIGHT OF THREE HAD COMPLETED A LOW PASS OVER RUNWAY 17 AS PART OF AN ANNUAL FLY-IN AND OPEN HOUSE HOSTED BY THE AIRPORT. ACCORDING TO THE PILOT, THE ENGINE FAILED TO RESPOND WHEN HE ADDED POWER TO INITIATE A CLIMB FOLLOWING THE LOW PASS. WITNESSES OBSERVED THE NOSE OF THE AIRPLANE PITCH UP TO CLEAR WIRES ACROSS THE AIRPLANE'S FLIGHT PATH. THE AIRPLANE WAS SUBSEQUENTLY OBSERVED DESCENDING IN A NOSE DOWN ATTITUDE INTO A METAL BUILDING, COMING TO REST ON THE ROOF. POST ACCIDENT EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE DID NOT REVEAL ANY ANOMALIES THAT COULD HAVE PREVENTED NORMAL ENGINE OPERATION.

Probable cause

THE PILOT'S INADVERTENT STALL AS RESULT OF AN ABRUPT MANEUVER. A FACTOR WAS THE LOSS OF ENGINE POWER FOR UNDETERMINED REASONS.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record FTW95LA351
Event ID
20001207X04250
Case number
FTW95LA351
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: 986f26e33d4920dc85edc9cc3c2d6d46f3c67e237bcfb146b6efa9ae6e3fc56b; retrieved 2026-09-21T13:08:27.668Z.