FTW96LA404 · Republic RC-3
Republic RC-3 · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Santa Fe Municipal Airport (SAF) to Holbrook Municipal Airport (P14)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW96LA404
- 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
Republic RC-3
- Aircraft type
- Republic RC-3
- 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
- N6103K
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Santa Fe Municipal Airport (SAF)To Holbrook Municipal Airport (P14), HOLBROOK, AZ
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not obtained/maintained
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Santa Fe, NM, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
The pilot/owner, who stated that he was PIC, reported a takeoff weight of 2,800 pounds and a performance climb of 290 fpm. Following gear retraction at 80 mph, the airplane encountered a 'windshear, airspeed decreased to 60 mph (stall speed 58 mph) and the airplane would not climb.' The pilot-rated passenger told the PIC that 'he was getting slow and not to stall the aircraft.' The pilot released the 'back pressure on the yoke to recover from the impending stall, but there wasn't sufficient altitude to recover level flight.' Power lines, a fence, and vehicles obstructed the forced landing area. Witnesses observed the airplane rotate, fly in ground effect, not climbing, and in a high angle of attack as it proceeded down the runway. Subsequently, the airplane was observed losing altitude and 'sort of wobbling down with a tail low attitude.' The takeoff weight was calculated to be at the maximum allowable 3,150 pounds. Density altitude was calculated at 7,600 feet. VFR weather prevailed with clear skies, 40 miles visibility, with the winds 360 degrees at 8 kts.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to obtain/maintain airspeed resulting in an inadvertent stall/mush. Factors were the high density altitude and the lack of suitable terrain for the landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW96LA404
- Event ID
- 20001208X06744
- Case number
- FTW96LA404
- 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: 381bc0b761d9e73f896cf7411160192bf821cde774a2f23b620e306db911508e; retrieved 2026-09-21T12:26:37.952Z.