DEN85LA173 · Grumman G-164A
Grumman G-164A · Accident: airframe, component or system failure while maneuvering
From Deming, NM to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN85LA173
- 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
Grumman G-164A
- Aircraft type
- Grumman G-164
- 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
- N5337
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Deming, NMTo 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 137: Agricultural
- 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
- Maneuvering · turn to reverse direction
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, improper
- Propeller governor control › Failure, total
- Propeller system/accessories › Improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT TOLD FAA HE WAS SPRAYING A COTTON FIELD AND WAS TURNING AROUND FROM A SWATH RUN WHEN THE PROPELLER FEATHERED. THE PLT TOLD NTSB THAT THE ACFT 'PITCHED UPWARD AND LOST POWER.' ACFT TYPE CERTIFICATE SHOWS THAT A HAMILTON STANDARD PROPELLER M/N 2D30/6101A-12-13-14 IS INSTALLED. PROPELLER REMOVED FROM ACFT WAS A HARTZELL M/N HCB3W30-2B, AN UNAPPROVED INSTALLATION. PROP DISASSEMBLY REVEALED A SPACER HAD BEEN PLACED IN RING ASSEMBLY, MAKING IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR PROP TO FEATHER. BLADE CLAMPS INSIDE PROP HUB WEE BROKEN. NO. 1 BLADE WAS IN FEATHERED POSITION, NO. 2 BLADE WAS NEAR FEATHER, AND NO. 3 BLADE WAS PAST FEATHER. THERE WAS NO EVIDENCE OF AN OIL LOSS OR PROP GOVERNOR FAILURE/MALFUNCTION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN85LA173
- Event ID
- 20001214X36766
- Case number
- DEN85LA173
- 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: 9f4eb5395423f034601c4515bdef28bd27f5d9b7f901790d1c9a52870a00ff60; retrieved 2026-09-23T17:11:16.070Z.