FTW89FA107 · Pitts S-1S
Pitts S-1S · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Mc Alester Regional Airport (MLC) to Bartlesville Municipal Airport (BVO)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW89FA107
- 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
Pitts S-1S
- Aircraft type
- Pitts S-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
- N64652
- Operator
- Arsenault, Donald S. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Mc Alester Regional Airport (MLC), MC ALESTER, OKTo Bartlesville Municipal Airport (BVO), Bartlesville, OK
- 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 · 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)
- 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
- Wire, transmission
- 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
- Exhaust system, stack › Failure, total
- Exhaust system, stack › Separation
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, major repair, poor
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
POWER LOSS OCCURRED DUE TO SEPARATION AND DEPARTURE OF LOWER 1/2 RT EXHAUST STACK. PLT MADE A FORCED LANDING ON THE 2 NORTHBOUND LANES OF A DIVIDED HWY. ON SHORT FINAL, THE ACFT STRUCK POWER LINES, CRASHED, AND SLID INTO A TRUCK TRAVELLING NORTH. A PASSENGER CAR, TRAVELLING SOUTH, BECAME ENTANGLED IN THE WIRES AND WAS SUBSEQUENTLY REAR ENDED BY ANOTHER BEHICLE. THE POWER LINE POLES WERE MASKED FROM VIEW BY TREES ON BOTH SIDES OF THE ROAD. EXAMINATION OF THE EXHAUST STACK REVEALED THAT IT HAD UNDERGONE EXTENSIVE POST-MANUFACTURE REPAIRS IN THE AREA OF THE SEPARATION. THERE WAS EVIDENCE OF EXTENSIVE WELD FUSION ZONE POROSITY IN THE AREA THAT HAD BEEN WELDED. WELD FUSION ZONE POROSITY HAS BEEN ATTRIBUTED IN THE PAST TO POOR SURFACE PREPARATION AND WELD REPAIR TECHNIQUES.
Probable cause
AN ENGINE POWER LOSS DUE TO THE SEPARATION AND DEPARTURE OF AN EXHAUST STACK. THE STACK FAILED DUE TO POOR WELD. FACTOR(S) WAS: THE TERRAIN CONDITIONS OF THE SELECTED FORCED LANDING SITE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW89FA107
- Event ID
- 20001213X28577
- Case number
- FTW89FA107
- 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: f5fe40f3207082841204fac194593d3c94794fc5f09d39d3c7495469510799f7; retrieved 2026-09-21T15:54:41.915Z.