FTW97LA355 · American General Aircraft AG5B
American General Aircraft AG5B · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Gwinnett County Briscoe Field (LZU) to Texarkana Regional Airport (Webb Field) (TXK)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW97LA355
- 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
American General Aircraft AG5B
- Aircraft type
- American General AG5
- 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
- N1194L
- Operator
- Terry M. Britt · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Gwinnett County Briscoe Field (LZU), Lawrenceville, GATo Texarkana Regional Airport (Webb Field) (TXK), AR
- 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
- Approach
- 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)
- 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 exhaustion
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Refueling, not performed
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Texarkana, AR, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
The cross-country flight originated in Lawrenceville, Georgia, and was to proceed to Texarkana, Arkansas, to refuel and then proceed to the final destination of Dallas, Texas. The airplane was approximately 10 miles from Texarkana, when the engine lost power. The pilot reported that the engine lost power 4 hours 9 minutes after take off. He 'immediately' switched fuel tanks, and the engine restarted. Approximately one minute later, the engine lost power again. The pilot notified air traffic control that he had run out of fuel and would not be able to reach the airport. He initiated a forced landing to a flat, unplowed field. During a turn to the field, the airplane stalled. The pilot was able to regain control of the airplane, and continued toward the field. The airplane touched down short of the intended field, and came to rest inverted on top of a fence.
Probable cause
the pilot's improper planning/decision, by failing to ensure timely refueling of the airplane, which resulted in fuel exhaustion, loss of engine power, and a forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW97LA355
- Event ID
- 20001208X08850
- Case number
- FTW97LA355
- 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: 23595abab6da3073f00bdeed1992b97b82a01808506299a43dd42dd911dc96a5; retrieved 2026-09-21T11:48:18.559Z.