FTW04LA096 · Cessna 140
Cessna 140 · Accident: loss of engine power while maneuvering
From Hunt Airport (9R5) to Hunt Airport (9R5)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW04LA096
- 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
Cessna 140
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 140
- 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
- N2435V
- Operator
- William F. Mauch · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hunt Airport (9R5), Portland, TXTo Hunt Airport (9R5)
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- 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
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The commercial pilot took-off and while still in the traffic pattern, radioed a mechanic on the ground stating that he was "losing power." The pilot attempted to return to the runway, however he landed short of the runway. According to a witness, the left side of the airplane and engine cowling impacted the ground, bounced, and then the right wing tip hit the ground before the plane settled on its fuselage and left wing tip. Examination of the gas and oil revealed that they were clean and clear of debris. The gascolator was clean and full. The aircraft was topped off with fuel prior to departure, and no anomalies were noted with the fuel system. All engine accessories were in place, and the engine rotated. Engine continuity and compression were established. The carburetor (part number 10-4894) was removed for inspection. The proper carburetor part number for the accident aircraft engine (C-90-12F) is 10-5082. The carburetor that was installed on the accident airplane's engine was certified for a O-200-A engine. Precision Airmotive Corporation (type certificate holder of the carburetor) stated that the carburetors could not be converted from engine to another, and that certification testing had not been done for the carburetor (part number,10-4894) to be installed on C-90-12F series engines. The carburetor that was installed on the accident airplane is not interchangeable between O-200-A and C-90-12F series engines.
Probable cause
The pilots failure to maintain airspeed resulting in an inadvertant stall while executing a forced landing. A factor was the loss of engine power for undetermined reasons.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW04LA096
- Event ID
- 20040322X00353
- Case number
- FTW04LA096
- 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, coordinates. 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: a313ff841c249a83e86a15ead8fdc3c91c667b75a5380346e13d6dabfd3adc79; retrieved 2026-09-21T09:18:41.873Z.