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ATL99LA017 · Grumman-Schweizer G164B

11 Nov 1998 · Cuthbert, GA, United States

Thrash Viation Grumman-Schweizer G164B · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) while maneuvering

From Lower Chattahoochee Regional Airport (25J) to an unrecorded destination

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Event

NTSB case
ATL99LA017
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

Grumman-Schweizer G164B

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
N6656Q
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Lower Chattahoochee Regional Airport (25J), GATo 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 137: Agricultural
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 · aerial application
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 (mechanical 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
Destroyed

Cause areas

  • Fluid, fuel › Starvation
  • Fuel system, pump › Failure, total
  • Reduction gear assembly, accessory drive shaft › Fatigue

Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Cuthbert, GA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.

NTSB narrative

According to the pilot, the airplane's engine lost power while positioning to conduct agricultural operations. The Pilot made an off airport emergency landing in a field. The airplane collided with tree stumps and nosed over. During engine examination, there was a fatigue fracture found in the fuel control gearshaft. It was discovered that both fuselage and engine fuel filters were clogged. There was no Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) for the installation of the engine into this airplane.

Probable cause

The fatigue failure of the accessory gear shaft which resulted in fuel starvation and the loss of engine power. A factors was the fuel system filter restriction.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record ATL99LA017
Event ID
20001211X11366
Case number
ATL99LA017
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: 091ad5f7ce6b2b5df0af43d64e259fcd78f7cf15cc1b23e0608f7fc6218ec713; retrieved 2026-09-21T20:39:16.277Z.