FTW92FA165 · Piper J3C-65
Ari Ben Aviator Piper J3C-65 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure on approach
From Addison Airport (ADS) to Addison Airport (ADS)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW92FA165
- 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
- 2 · 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
Piper J3C-65
- Aircraft type
- Piper J3
- 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
- N3128M
- Operator
- Ari Ben Aviator
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Addison Airport (ADS)To Addison Airport (ADS)
- 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 · VFR pattern base
- 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
- 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, elevator › Corroded
- Flight control, elevator › Failure, total
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ENGINE HAD JUST COMPLETED MAJOR WORK AND THE AIRPLANE HAD BEEN RELEASED FOR AN ENGINE GROUND TEST RUN; THE AIRPLANE HAD NOT BEEN RETURNED TO SERVICE OR RELEASED FOR FLIGHT. APRX 1 MINUTE AFTER TAKEOFF THE PILOT REPORTED HE NEEDED TO RETURN FOR LANDING, AND WAS CLEARED FOR RIGHT TRAFFIC RWY 33. ABOUT 2 MIN LATER THE PILOT REQUESTED TO TURN BASE LEG, AND SHORTLY THEREAFTER THE AIRPLANE WAS OBSERVED TO ROLL OVER AND IMPACT INVERTED. THE LEFT ELEVATOR HORIZONTAL TUBE WHICH EXTENDS OUTBOARD FROM THE BELLCRANK HAD FAILED. CORROSION PARTICLES WERE REMOVED FROM INSIDE THE TUBE. TUBE THICKNESS OUTBOARD OF THE CORROSION AREA MEASURED 0.035 INCH. THE DIRECTOR OF MAINTENANCE STATED THAT THE AIRPLANE WAS DUE AND SCHEDULED FOR THE ANNUAL INSPECTION PRIOR TO RELEASING THE AIRPLANE FOR FLIGHT TESTING.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE LEFT ELEVATOR ASSEMBLY DUE TO CORROSION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW92FA165
- Event ID
- 20001211X14858
- Case number
- FTW92FA165
- 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: 82a878a2dacb1ec665621ed59c4737e678b2347ed14f1455fcd358204a6cd608; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:06:45.989Z.