FTW00LA267 · PZL-Mielec M-18A
PZL-Mielec M-18A · Accident: airframe, component or system failure while maneuvering
From Dumas, AR (no airport) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW00LA267
- 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
PZL-Mielec M-18A
- Aircraft type
- PZL Mielec M-18
- 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
- N81548
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Dumas, AR (no airport)To 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
- 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
- Wing › Separation
- Wing, wing attachment fitting › Corroded
- Wing, wing attachment fitting › Fatigue
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot was initiating a spray run over a field when he heard a loud pop. The pilot stated that the airplane started to roll and pitch nose down. The airplane impacted the ground, coming to rest inverted. Examination of the airplane revealed that the right wing separated in-flight. The right outboard wing section's forward lower attachment fitting separated as a result of fatigue cracking. The fatigue cracking was a result of severe corrosion pitting in the bore of the central lug of the fitting. The right side lower expansion mandrel and bolt were found void of grease or anti-corrosive material. At the time of the accident, the airplane had accumulated a total of 5,898.6 hours. There was no indication in the aircraft maintenance records that the recommended 3,000-hour wing attachment fitting inspection had been conducted. The service life limit of the airplane was 6,000 hours only if the 3,000-hour inspection had been completed.
Probable cause
the corrosion and fatigue cracking of the right wing attachment fitting, which resulted in the right wing separating in flight. A factor was the failure of the operator to perform the recommended wing attachment fitting inspection.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW00LA267
- Event ID
- 20001212X21985
- Case number
- FTW00LA267
- 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: a5bb4f05a090f46bda97b0287eb49c2a8f4a4d5b9e82df0041fa19a4771c5042; retrieved 2026-09-21T20:04:48.498Z.