FTW96LA040 · Piper PA-28-180
Piper PA-28-180 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From Fort Worth Meacham International Airport (FTW) to Fort Worth Meacham International Airport (FTW)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW96LA040
- 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
Piper PA-28-180
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N9504J
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fort Worth Meacham International Airport (FTW)To Fort Worth Meacham International Airport (FTW), 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 (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Fuel tank selector position, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
SHORTLY AFTER TAKE OFF AT NIGHT, WHILE CLIMBING THROUGH ABOUT 300 FEET ABOVE GROUND LEVEL, THE ENGINE LOST POWER, AND THE PILOT WAS FORCED TO LAND IN A GRASSY AREA ON AIRPORT PROPERTY. THE LANDING WAS HARD, WHICH RESULTED IN A DAMAGED WING SPAR. THE AIRPLANE HAD BEEN FLOWN APPROXIMATELY 2 HOURS SINCE IT WAS LAST REFUELED. THE PILOT REPORTED THAT HE HAD UTILIZED THE LEFT FUEL TANK FOR THE 2 HOURS OF FLIGHT, AND 'FORGOT TO CHANGE THE FUEL SELECTOR OVER TO THE RIGHT TANK.' ACCORDING TO THE OWNER, EACH FUEL TANK HAD A CAPACITY OF 18 GALLONS, AND FUEL CONSUMPTION WAS APPROXIMATELY 9 GALLONS PER HOUR. EXAMINATION OF THE AIRPLANE AFTER THE ACCIDENT REVEALED THAT THE LEFT MAIN FUEL TANK WAS EMPTY AND THE RIGHT MAIN FUEL TANK WAS FULL. ADDITIONALLY, NO FUEL WAS FOUND IN THE CARBURETOR OR GASCOLATOR. ACCORDING TO THE OWNER'S RECORDS, THE HOBBS METER READING WAS 1345.2 HOURS PRIOR TO THE FLIGHT. THE HOBBS METER READING WAS 1347.2 HOURS AT THE ACCIDENT SITE.
Probable cause
INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT BY THE PILOT, AND IMPROPER POSITIONING OF THE FUEL SELECTOR, WHICH RESULTED IN FUEL STARVATION AND LOSS OF ENGINE POWER DURING TAKEOFF. DARKNESS WAS A RELATED FACTOR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW96LA040
- Event ID
- 20001207X04846
- Case number
- FTW96LA040
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1995-11-04.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 02c4e5f06c5b5734e60acd2850442a3f76e232fb54b6f3c00064c05d38ed06c6; retrieved 2026-09-22T23:04:15.012Z.