FTW01LA049 · de Havilland DHC-6-300
Earth Data Aviation de Havilland DHC-6-300 · Accident: loss of engine power on approach
From Alexandria International Airport (AEX) to Fort Worth Meacham International Airport (FTW)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW01LA049
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
de Havilland DHC-6-300
- Aircraft type
- de Havilland DHC-6
- 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
- N824ED
- Operator
- Earth Data Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Alexandria International Airport (AEX), Alexandria, LATo Fort Worth Meacham International Airport (FTW), Fort Worth, 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
- Approach · IFR final approach
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The flight was cleared for an ILS approach and as the airplane was approaching the point of glideslope intercept, both engines lost power. The airplane was vectored toward a nearby airport; however, after exiting the clouds, the pilot realized that the flight could not make the airport. The pilot initiated a forced landing to a field, and during the landing roll, the airplane crossed a road, and the right wing struck a tree. Subsequently, the nose landing gear separated when it struck a dirt berm. The airplane came to a stop upright. Examination of the fuel system revealed the aft main tank was 1/3-1/2 full of fuel, and the forward main tank 90% full of fuel. Examination of the cockpit revealed that the fuel selector for the main tanks was found in the NORMAL position. With the selector in the NORMAL position, the aft main tank supplies fuel to the left engine, and the forward main tank supplies fuel to the right engine. Examination of the fuel system revealed no discrepancies. The fuel boost pumps were activated and fuel flowed from the fuel supply lines. The left and right airframe fuel filters and the left and right engine fuel filters contained fuel. Examination of both engines revealed no anomalies that would have precluded the operation of the engines. The pilot reported that at the time of the dual engine failure, the fuel selector was selecting the aft tank, thereby feeding both engines from the aft fuel tank. He further reported that when both engines failed, he immediately switched the fuel selector to "NORMAL". The aircraft's flight manual directs the pilot to position the fuel selector to "NORMAL" prior to takeoff and for landing.
Probable cause
the loss of power to both engines for undetermined reasons during approach. Contributing factors were the pilot's failure to properly position the fuel selector in accordance with the landing checklist and the lack of suitable terrain for the forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW01LA049
- Event ID
- 20010116X00313
- Case number
- FTW01LA049
- 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: eaf7f0a1d95c03e1a581a443b8be10d3bb651855528d992de50d1f8651245530; retrieved 2026-09-22T12:14:11.969Z.