FTW96LA221 · Piper PA-23-150
Pro Aircraft Piper PA-23-150 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) while maneuvering
From Hicks Air Field (T67) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW96LA221
- 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-23-150
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-23
- 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
- N299MD
- Operator
- Pro Aircraft
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hicks Air Field (T67), Fort Worth, 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
- 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 (non-mechanical)
- 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
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The multiengine airplane was maneuvering at 4,500 MSL for single engine training when the flight instructor secured and feathered the left engine. After several attempts to restart, the left engine did not restart. Subsequently, the right engine began showing a power loss with a manifold pressure decrease. The pilot reported not being able to keep the landing gear retracted with the hydraulic system hand pump. Following a loss of flight altitude, a forced landing with the gear partially extended was performed to a field with a gravel pit. According to the operator's manual for the airplane, the hydraulic system used to extend the landing gear is driven by the left engine. The hand pump provides a means to extend the landing gear during a hydraulic system failure. The reason for the loss of right engine power and the lack of hydraulic system pressure was not determined.
Probable cause
THE LOSS OF ENGINE POWER AND HYDRAULIC PRESSURE FOR REASONS UNDETERMINED. A FACTOR WAS THE LACK OF SUITABLE TERRAIN FOR THE FORCED LANDING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW96LA221
- Event ID
- 20001208X05770
- Case number
- FTW96LA221
- 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: 879004b6001a9cc9502369b755b9b844cfae259137a9efc62a086a8098d9c107; retrieved 2026-09-21T21:49:13.363Z.