FTW96LA207 · Bowers MIDGET MUSTANG M-1 MIDGET MUS
Bowers MIDGET MUSTANG M-1 MIDGET MUS · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during initial climb
From HQZ to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW96LA207
- 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
Bowers MIDGET MUSTANG M-1 MIDGET MUS
- Aircraft type
- Bowers MIDGET MUSTANG M-1
- 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
- N9516
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From HQZTo 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
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Maintenance, installation, improper
- Propeller system/accessories, spinner › Separation
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot had installed a composite propeller with a composite spinner that extended forward about 14 inches and did not have a forward support plate. During the first flight, an object departed the propeller area. The pilot reported the airplane rolled left with a loss of control during the forced landing. A pilot/witness reported observing the airplane stall. The spinner backing plate remained attached with the 12 screws in place; however, the rest of the spinner was not recovered. Flap continuity was confirmed. The propeller installation bolts did not extend through the self-locking nuts. The owner/pilot did not contact the FAA for an inspection of the propeller installation. FAA inspectors stated that the installation was a major change and required FAA notification. The experimental category airplane and the propeller were neither manufactured nor required to be in accordance with a FAA Type Certificate (and therefore, they are not governed by any FAR's for design and production).
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain aircraft control following the separation of the propeller spinner installed by the pilot. A factor was the pilot's failure to obtain the required FAA inspection for the installation.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW96LA207
- Event ID
- 20001208X05760
- Case number
- FTW96LA207
- 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: 1846adea4ddc8145fa7534468db38d90d79c5fe3539c098f9f0cc1bcec4b5f6c; retrieved 2026-09-21T21:51:08.567Z.