FTW88FA110 · Cessna 320-F
Cessna 320-F · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From San Angelo Regional Mathis Field (SJT) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW88FA110
- 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
Cessna 320-F
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 320
- 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
- N73AT
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From San Angelo Regional Mathis Field (SJT)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 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 initial 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 starvation; Stall
- 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
- Ignition system, spark plug › Fouled
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Aborted takeoff, not performed
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Stall, inadvertent
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Supervision, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DRG FAM FLT, CFI NOTED FUEL QUANTITY LOW WITH SELECTORS ON AUX FUEL TANKS. DRG ARC TO ILS APCH, CFI ALLOWED THE RT ENG TO FAIL DUE TO FUEL STARVATION. CFI SELECTED MAIN TKS AND OBTAINED RESTART. APCH WAS CONT TO A TOUCH AND GO LNDG PERFORMED BY THE ATP PLT RECEIVING INSTRUCTION IN THE LT SEAT. AS PWR WAS ADDED, THE ACFT DRIFTED TO THE RT, DESPITE THEUSE OF FULL LT RUDDER. THE CFI DID NOT ABORT THE TKOF BECAUSE HE THOUGHT SWERVE WAS EITHER PLT INDUCED OR DUE TO ASSYMETRICAL PWR FROM MISMATCHED THROTTLE CONTROLS. NEAR THE RT EDGE OF THE RWY THE CFI TOOK CONTROL AND ROTATED. HE RPTD THAT ROTATION OCCURRED AT 96 MPH AND THAT HE EXPERIENCED LT ROLLING FORCES IMMEDIATELY AFTER BECOMING AIRBORNE. THE LT SEAT PLT RPTD THE SPEED TO BE 80 TO 90 MPH. THE CFI FEATHERED THE LT PROP SHORTLY BEFORE IMPACT IN A LAKE. THE RT ENG TEST RAN SUCCESSFULLY. THE LT ENG WAS DISASSEMBLED REVEALING NO MALFTNS. RT PROP DISASSEMBLY INDICATED LITTLE PWR AT IMPACT. THE LT SEAT PLT SAID THERE WAS NO FORMAL PRE-BRIEF AND THAT THE FUEL SYSTEM WAS NEVER EXPLAINED TO HIM.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW88FA110
- Event ID
- 20001213X25691
- Case number
- FTW88FA110
- 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: 112f17cce02ad47e35cecfdd2a82ecbdbe2e931005ce782de99242caf9083946; retrieved 2026-09-21T16:10:13.458Z.