NYC88DGT01 · North American F-51D
North American F-51D · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From an unrecorded airport to Charleston International Airport (CHS)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC88DGT01
- 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
- 1 · 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
North American F-51D
- Aircraft type
- North American F-51
- 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
- N51WE
- Operator
- William E. Clark · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Charleston International Airport (CHS), Charleston, SC
- 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
- En route · climb to cruise
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Powerplant › Undetermined
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of State College, PA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
N51WE, A NORTH AMERICAN F-51D TOOK OFF AS THE SECOND SHIP OF A TWO SHIP FLIGHT WITH N6341T, ANOTHER F-51D. THEY WERE OBSERVED CLIMBING IN FORMATION INTO THE CLOUDS. N6341T ASSUMED COMMUNICATIONS AND SAID THEY WERE A FLIGHT OF 2 AND OK, AFTER ATC WAS UNABLE TO CONTACT N51WE. WITNESSES WERE FOUND WHO SAW AND HEARD AN AIRCRAFT TRAVELING NORTH AND EXPERIENCING ENGINE TROUBLE. WITNESSES ALSO SAID THE MOUNTAIN TOPS WERE OBSCURED. N51WE WAS FOUND NEAR THE TOP OF A WOODED HILL SOUTH OF THE DEPARTURE AIRPORT. THE AIRCRAFT WAS DESTROYED AND THE PILOT FATALLY INJURED. EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE SHOWED THAT THERE WAS ONE FOULED SPARK PLUG, HOWEVER, THE MAGNETOS AND CARBURATOR WERE NOT RECOVERED. THE WX OBSERVATION SITE WAS 6 MILES SOUTH OF THE ACC SITE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC88DGT01
- Event ID
- 20001213X25327
- Case number
- NYC88DGT01
- 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: 5a8051c992d0274b35794918f19141360685375ecacdc27cdae0785b58360134; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:47:40.750Z.