Martinair Cessna 401A accident
Cessna 401A · Accident: explosion while taxiing
From Dallas Love Field (DAL) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW87LA217
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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 401A
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 401
- 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
- N6249Q
- Operator
- Martinair
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Dallas Love Field (DAL), Dallas, 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- Taxi · from runway
- 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
- Explosion
- 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
- Fuel system › Leak
- Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, not followed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT STATED THAT THE RIGHT ENGINE QUIT AFTER LANDING AT THE WICHITA FALLS, TEXAS AIRPORT. A WITNESS STATED THAT HE ATTEMPTED TO START THE ENGINE SEVERAL TIMES WHEN THE RIGHT WING EXPLODED DURING THE LAST ATTEMPTED ENGINE RESTART. DAMAGE WAS CONCENTRATED IN THE RIGHT WING BETWEEN THE ENGINE NACELLE AND THE MAIN FUEL TANK. THERE WAS NO FIRE ASSOCIATED WITH THE EXPLOSION. EXAMINATION OF THE WRECKAGE INDICATED THAT THE EXPLOSION ORIGINATED AT THE ENGINE AREA AND HAD EMANATED FROM WITHIN THE WING. THE PILOT INDICATED THAT HE HAD TAKEN OFF ON THE MAIN FUEL TANKS AND THEN SWITCHED TO THE AUX TANKS DURING THE FLIGHT. BEFORE LANDING, HE HAD SWITCHED BACK TO THE MAIN TANKS. ACCORDING TO THE FAA INSPECTOR AT THE SCENE, THE MAIN FUEL TANKS WERE FOUND 'OVERFILLED BEYOND THE FILLER OPENINGS.' THE PILOT OPERATING HANDBOOK REQUIRES SUBSTANTIAL OPERATING TIME ON MAIN TANKS PRIOR TO SWITCHING TO AUX TANKS. THE OVERFLOW FROM ENGINES RETURNS TO THE MAIN TANKS ONLY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW87LA217
- Event ID
- 20001213X32093
- Case number
- FTW87LA217
- 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: df18e44f76d739a6a4f5ee22f991526e944d57a4f523539b09de01e80fba45da; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:37:45.205Z.