FTW92LA085 · Grumman G-164A
Grumman G-164A · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From F60 · McGregor, TX to F60
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW92LA085
- 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 G-164A
- Aircraft type
- Grumman G-164
- 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
- N9828
- Operator
- Don E. Lowe · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From F60 · McGregor, TXTo F60
- 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
- En route · descent
- 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)
- 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
- Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Valley Mills, TX, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
DURING A DESCENT FOR AERIAL APPLICATION OF FERTILIZER ON A WHEAT FIELD, THE ENGINE LOST POWER AND THE PILOT MADE A FORCED LANDING. DURING THE LANDING ROLL IN THE WET FIELD THE AIRPLANE NOSED OVER. A REVIEW OF THE MAINTENANCE RECORDS REVEALED THAT THE ENGINE WAS APPROVED FOR AUTOMOTIVE FUEL. AN ENGINE TEARDOWN WAS CONDUCTED. SPARK PLUGS INSTALLED ON THE BACK SIDE OF THE CYLINDERS WERE NOT APPROVED BY THE ENGINE MANUFACTURER. THE PLUGS WERE CORRODED AND FOULED. CARBON DEPOSITS WERE FOUND IN THE OIL. THE INTAKE MANIFOLD, THE VALVES, AND THE TOPS OF THE PISTONS CONTAINED CARBON DEPOSITS. THE MANUFACTURER RECOMMENDED ENGINE OVERHAUL IS BETWEEN 600 AND 1000 HOURS FOR THIS ENGINE. EIGHT HUNDRED AND FORTY SEVEN HOURS OF USE HAD OCCURRED WITH THIS ENGINE SINCE THE LAST OVERHAUL.
Probable cause
POWER LOSS DUE INADEQUATE MAINTENANCE AND THE RESULTANT MULTIPLE MAINTENANCE DISCREPANCIES. A FACTOR WAS THE WET TERRAIN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW92LA085
- Event ID
- 20001211X14291
- Case number
- FTW92LA085
- 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: e434d1d54cb28eaa271cd945ca9059cfeb49e810e80c1506307126594b136fd6; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:20:02.840Z.