FTW91FA028 · Folland GNAT T-1
Folland GNAT T-1 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From PFN · Panama City, FL to Fort Worth Meacham International Airport (FTW)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW91FA028
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Folland GNAT T-1
- Aircraft type
- Folland GNAT T-1
- 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
- N3XR
- Operator
- Thompson, Gary S. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From PFN · Panama City, FLTo Fort Worth Meacham International Airport (FTW), Dallas, TX
- 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 · IFR missed 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; Tree(s)
- 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 › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › Fuel supply, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Bossier City, LA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
DURING A FLT FROM FLORIDA TO TEXAS, THE PLT MADE AN EN ROUTE STOP AT PANAMA CITY, FL & REFUELED. AT 1043 CST, HE DEPD PANAMA CITY & PROCEEDED ON AN IFR FLT AT FLT LEVEL 310 TO DALLAS, TX. AT 1227 CST (AFTER MAKING A WX CHECK), HE CHANGED HIS DESTN & WAS CLEARED TO PROCEED DIRECT TO SHREVEPORT, LA. THE LAST TRANSMISSION FROM THE ACFT WAS AT 1134:50. WHEN HE WAS CLRD TO DSCND TO FL 24O AT 1139, NO RADIO REPLY WAS RCVD. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE PLT DSCNDD & MADE AN APCH TO RWY 14 AT THE SHREVEPORT RGNL ARPT. TOWER PSNL RPRTD THAT AFTER FLYING BY THE TOWER OR MAKING A MISSED APCH, RADAR CONTACT WITH THE ACFT WAS LOST. SUBSEQUENTLY, IT HIT TREES & CRASHED AFTER BEING AIRBORNE ABOUT 1.8 HRS. IT HAD BEGUN THE FLT WITH AN ESTIMATED 1.5 HRS OF FUEL ON BOARD. NO FUEL WAS FOUND TRAPPED IN THE LINES OR FILTER & NO EVIDENCE OF A FUEL SPILL WAS FOUND, THOUGH THE ACFT WAS EXTENSIVELY DMGD.
Probable cause
IMPROPER PLANNING/DECISION BY THE PILOT AND HIS DELAY IN DIVERTING TO AN ALTERNATE AIRPORT, WHICH RESULTED IN FUEL EXHAUSTION DUE TO LACK OF FUEL. THE ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS AND RADIO MALFUNCTION WERE RELATED FACTORS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW91FA028
- Event ID
- 20001212X16313
- Case number
- FTW91FA028
- 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: 23cebc05fed09f6d837a38631dd27df1570a13c1b9b0b32ba7d7c06b755488ab; retrieved 2026-09-21T02:01:41.984Z.