FTW88LA045 · Aero Commander 100-180
Aero Commander 100-180 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From 3T1 to 1N1 · Little Rock, AR
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW88LA045
- 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
Aero Commander 100-180
- Aircraft type
- Aero Commander 100
- 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
- N3709X
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 3T1To 1N1 · Little Rock, AR
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Partial 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
- Exhaust system, muffler › Blocked(partial)
- Exhaust system, muffler › Failure, partial
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING A PRACTICE TOUCH AND GO LANDING, THE ENGINE BACK FIRED AND THEN SURGED. AT ABOUT 150' AGL THE ENGINE RPM DROPPED ABOUT 80% AND THE PILOT ATTEMPTED TO MAKE AN EMERGENCY LANDING IN AN OPEN FIELD. THE AIRCRAFT FLEW OVER A TRASH DUMP AND BETWEEN TWO TREES. WHILE ATTEMPTING TO CLEAR A FENCE THE STALL WARNING HORN WENT OFF. THE AIRCRAFT CONTACTED THE GROUND LEFT MAIN AND WING FIRST CAUSING SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGE. EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE FOUND THAT THE ENGINE EXHAUST MUFFLER HAD FAILED INTERNALLY BLOCKING THE EXHAUST OUTLET.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW88LA045
- Event ID
- 20001213X24903
- Case number
- FTW88LA045
- 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: 4e139d554e2a2514e370bf29bb6707cda3bdad4cb698aa0b2665f8892f7ac0cc; retrieved 2026-09-22T00:40:05.883Z.