FTW96FA216 · Nanchang CJ-6A
Nanchang CJ-6A · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) while maneuvering
From Shreveport Downtown Airport (DTN) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW96FA216
- 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
- 2 · 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
Nanchang CJ-6A
- Aircraft type
- Nanchang CJ-6
- 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
- N24AD
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Shreveport Downtown Airport (DTN)To 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
- 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; Stall/mush
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Fuel system, carburetor › Failure, total
- Fuel system, carburetor › Flow restricted
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The single engine tandem airplane departed the airport to join a similar aircraft for a local flight. While maneuvering at an estimated altitude of 1,000 feet, the pilot reported 'going down, engine quit.' The pilot of the other airplane reported that he observed the airplane entering a left turn to try to make a field. The pilot witnessing the accident added that 'the pilot tried to extend his glide, experiencing an accelerated stall. The aircraft impacted the ground wings level in a 20 to 30 degrees nose down attitude, bounced, and caught on fire.' The initial point of impact was approximately 50 feet beyond a line of tall trees. Examination of the carburetor revealed that the throttle plate was found jammed in the full open position and the diaphragm assembly was found to be ruptured and very brittle, giving the appearance of being 'dry-rotten.' Particles of the broken diaphragm were found throughout the carburetor assembly. The airframe and engine logbooks for the airplane were stored in the airplane at the time of the accident and were presumed destroyed. The investigation was unable to establish the date of the last overhaul/repair on the carburetor assembly or when the failed diaphragm was installed.
Probable cause
a loss of engine power due to failure of the pressure carburetor diaphragm which led to restricted fuel flow through the carburetor and eventual fuel starvation. Factors contributing to the accident were the unsuitable terrain and tall trees which resulted in the pilot's inadvertent stall during the forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW96FA216
- Event ID
- 20001208X05747
- Case number
- FTW96FA216
- 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: d7485c5dc6dcfc8265077df98079151f6727af493a3ec6cf465bb1c6100de55b; retrieved 2026-09-20T23:21:34.158Z.