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FTW96LA331 · Scott GLASS GOOSE GLASS GOOS

2 Aug 1996 · Aubrey, TX, United States

Scott GLASS GOOSE GLASS GOOS · Accident: airframe, component or system failure while maneuvering

From Lakeview Airport (30F) to an unrecorded destination

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Event

NTSB case
FTW96LA331
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

Scott GLASS GOOSE GLASS GOOS

Aircraft type
Scott GLASS GOOSE
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
N96GG
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Lakeview Airport (30F), Lake Dallas, 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
Airframe, component or system 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
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

  • Flight control, aileron › Flutter
  • Owner/builder › Maintenance, design change, performed

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

NTSB narrative

The experimental airplane was on its fifth flight. The pilot reported that about 15 minutes into the accident flight the airplane 'experienced flutter and began loosing altitude.' A few seconds before the forced landing, the engine lost power. The pilot reported that the airplane was controllable until the loss of engine power. The airplane impacted the ground in a 'yawed' attitude and tumbled, coming to rest in an inverted position. During the final approach for the forced landing, the upper right flaperon had departed the aircraft approximately 300 yards before the impact site. According to the pilot, who was also the builder of the airplane, he believed the flutter to be the result of his 'increasing the size of the flaperons from the designer's original design without a corresponding increase in the strength of the control system elements.' Contributing to this was the fact that the flaperons had not been balanced. Postcrash examination of the airplane revealed that the in-flight flutter had caused the upper right wing's fuel tank to rupture, and fuel had been spilled down the right side of the airplane. The fuel selector at the time of the accident was on the 'Right Upper' tank.

Probable cause

The owner/builder's design change resulting in in-flight flutter of the flaperon, which led to the fuel tank rupture and separation of the flaperon.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record FTW96LA331
Event ID
20001208X06487
Case number
FTW96LA331
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: dd0dc72b04fd7e41c2a66dc6eadc704e857aa08f62b125fc5f108f26b69cc7e5; retrieved 2026-09-22T21:39:18.071Z.