FTW89FA171 · Piper PA-22-150
Piper PA-22-150 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From T72 · Hearne, TX to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW89FA171
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-22-150
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-22
- 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
- N4329A
- Operator
- Hal F. Matheny · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From T72 · Hearne, TXTo 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 · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Stall
- 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
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Mixture, inadvertent deactivation
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A FARMER RPRTD HE OBSERVED THE ACFT APCHG THE PVT STRIP, AS IF TO LAND FROM THE SOUTH, BUT HE DID NOT SEE IT CRASH. THE ACFT WRECKAGE WAS FOUND ABOUT 1/4 MI FROM THE APCH END OF RWY 2, WHEN FIREMEN RESPONDED TO A RPRTD GRASS FIRE. AN INVESTIGATION REVEALED THE ACFT HAD IMPACTED IN A STEEP NOSE DOWN ATTITUDE & BURNED. NO ROTATIONAL DAMAGE WAS NOTED ON THE PROP. THE MIXTURE CONTROL WAS FOUND AT THE IDLE CUT-OFF PSN & THE THROTTLE WAS FOUND 2.3' FROM THE FORWARD PSN & BENT ABOUT 90 DEG TO THE RGT. THE FUEL SELECTOR WAS ALSO FOUND BETWEEN THE LEFT TANK & OFF PSN; HOWEVER, THERE WAS EXTENSIVE DAMAGE TO THE ACFT DUE TO IMPACT & FIRE. BEFORE THE FLT, PLT HAD EXPRESSED HIS APPRENHENSION ABOUT LANDING AT THE AIRSTRIP. THIS WAS THE 1ST FLT FOR THE ACFT SINCE 6/3/89. IT HAD BEEN AT THE DEP ARPT DURING THAT TIME FOR COSMETIC MAINTENANCE. APRX 30 MI WEST AT AUSTIN, THE 1553 CDT WIND WAS FROM 340 DEG AT 14 GUSTING 25 KTS.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S INADVERTENT CLOSURE (DEACTIVATION) OF THE MIXTURE CONTROL, WHICH RESULTED IN A LOSS OF ENGINE POWER, AND HIS FAILURE TO MAINTAIN SUFFICIENT AIRSPEED, WHICH RESULTED IN AN INADVERTENT STALL. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE GUSTY WIND, AND THE PILOT'S APPREHENSION OF EXISTING CONDITIONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW89FA171
- Event ID
- 20001213X29370
- Case number
- FTW89FA171
- 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: 74f13915781bb3d76716d98b81c6bbe1b5d48d22c60c4015e1fd4c83aa4628e2; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:08:36.927Z.