FTW82FA156 · Smith AEROSTAR 600 AEROSTAR 6
Smith AEROSTAR 600 AEROSTAR 6 · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Austin, TX to Corpus Christi, TX
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW82FA156
- 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
Smith AEROSTAR 600 AEROSTAR 6
- Aircraft type
- Smith AEROSTAR 600
- 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
- N133TS
- Operator
- Robert R. Gunn · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Austin, TXTo Corpus Christi, 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
- En route · descent
- 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
- 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/mush
- 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 › Lowering of flaps, premature
- Pilot in command › Stall/mush, inadvertent
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE DESCENDING NEAR THE DESTINATION, THE LEFT ENGINE STOPPED RUNNING. THE PILOT ATTEMPTED 2 AIRSTARTS WHICH WERE UNSUCCESSFUL. HE FEATHERED AND SECURED THE LEFT ENGINE AND REQUESTED RADAR VECTORS TO THE NEAREST AIRPORT. A VISUAL APPROACH WAS MADE TO THE HUNT AIRPORT AT PORTLAND, TX. THE PILOT STATED THAT HE WAS HAVING NO DIFFICULTY IN MAINTAINING AIRSPEED EVEN WITH THE GEAR DOWN UNTIL HE WAS ON FINAL APPROACH. ON SHORT FINAL, HE EXTENDED FULL FLAPS. HE STATED THAT AS SOON AS HE PUT THE FLAP HANDLE DOWN, HE REALIZED HE MADE A MISTAKE, BUT IT WAS TOO LATE TO TAKE ANY ACTION TO PREVENT THE AIRCRAFT FROM LANDING SHORT. THE AIRCRAFT TOUCHED DOWN ON RISING TERRAIN BETWEEN THE END OF THE RUNWAY AND A NEARBY SHORELINE, TRAVELED UP THE EMBANKMENT AND ONTO THE RUNWAY, THEN BURNED. THE PILOT ESCAPED WITH ONLY MINOR INJURIES. THE FIRE DAMAGED LEFT ENGINE WAS DISASSEMBLED, BUT NO PREIMPACT FAILURE WAS FOUND. REPORTEDLY, THE PLANE HAD NOT BEEN FLOWN SINCE FEB 82. BEFORE TAKEOFF, THE BATTERY WAS DEAD.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW82FA156
- Event ID
- 20020917X02110
- Case number
- FTW82FA156
- 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: 763b429e8ab3a3a99b1b1442e80b96a4686e84010b5ee8a9eb4a0d3c83cf217d; retrieved 2026-09-22T03:06:08.978Z.