FTW86FA025 · Gates Learjet 35A
Gates Learjet 35A · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to William P. Hobby Airport (HOU)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW86FA025
- 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
- 2 · 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Gates Learjet 35A
- Aircraft type
- Learjet 35
- 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
- N723GL
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo William P. Hobby Airport (HOU), HOUSTIN, TX
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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 (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Compressor assembly, forward fan › Failure, total
- Compressor assembly, forward fan › Fatigue
- Compressor assembly, forward fan › Separation
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of College Station, TX, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT ROLLED TO THE RIGHT AND CRASHED AFTER A CATASTROPHIC (UNCONTAINED) FAILURE OF THE RT ENG DURING TAKEOFF FOR A NIGHT FLT. THE RT ENG FAN ROTOR DISC SEPARATED FROM THE HUB WHICH DAMAGED THE COWLING AND SOME DISC FRAGMENTS BURIED IN THE FUSELAGE BUT WITHOUT DAMAGE TO THE FLT CONTROLS. THE DRAG CREATED BY THE LOSS OF THRUST AND THE DISTORTED COWLING LED TO YAW AND ROLL WITH LOSS OF CONTROL OF THE ACFT. THE FAN FAILURE PROPAGATED FROM A LOW GRADE FATIGUE CRACK ON THE HIGH TIME FAN WHICH WAS NOT DETECTED BY THE VISUAL INSPECTION PROCEDURES EXISTING AT THE TIME. THE MAUNUFACTURER HAS SINCE IMPROVED THE MANUFACTURING AND INSPECTION TECHNIQUES. AN AD 86-04-02 WAS ISSUED ON 2/14/86 WHICH DEALS WITH FAN REMOVAL FROM SERVICE ACCORDING TO AN OPERATING CYCLE SCHEDULE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW86FA025
- Event ID
- 20001214X38410
- Case number
- FTW86FA025
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1985-12-13.
- API snapshot SHA-256: a95cb16625849a3ce716f25d49609ee008f27ed43c1a12355aee64ff0dd14db1; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:44:11.754Z.