FTW04LA113 · Piper PA-23-250
Piper PA-23-250 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From Midland International Air and Space Port (MAF) to Sallisaw Municipal Airport (JSV)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW04LA113
- 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
Piper PA-23-250
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-23
- 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
- N6257H
- Operator
- Brian Carnes
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Midland International Air and Space Port (MAF), Midland, TXTo Sallisaw Municipal Airport (JSV), Sallisaw, OK
- 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 · cruise
- 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
- Propeller system/accessories › Overspeed
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The propeller on the number two engine on a light twin-engine airplane experienced an overspeed while in cruise flight. The 1,430-hour pilot reported that while in cruise flight at 5,500 feet msl, he noticed the propellers were "out of sync." The pilot stated that he made minor adjustments with the propeller levers to synchronize the propellers; however, the propellers continued to be "out of sync." The right propeller began to overspeed by approximately 1,000 RPM's, and adjustments with the right prop lever had no effect. The pilot retarded the throttle, but could not maintain proper engine RPM, so he elected to land at the nearest airport, located approximately 12 miles away. The pilot noticed that the number two engine was starting to overheat, so he retarded the throttle again and increased airspeed to aid in cooling. The airplane started to shake, and he looked outside and observed the propeller was "wobbling." Subsequently, the pilot executed a forced landing into a muddy wheat field. The airplane had an annual inspection on December 12, 2003, and was determined to be in an un-airworthy condition. The airplane was given a special flight permit for maintenance, issued on April 20, 2004, which was to expire on April 30, 2004. The propeller governors were tested on a governor test stand and functioned normally; however, they were out of specification. The maximum RPM on the left governor was 2,394 and the maximum RPM on the right governor was 2,310. The specified RPM is 2,435. The specified feather RPM is 1,700. The left governor achieved 1,671 RPMs and the right governor achieved 1,634 RPMs. Inspection after disassembly was uneventful. Both governors were found to be "old and worn, exhibited similar wear patterns, but were functional." The reason for the reported propeller overspeed could not be determined.
Probable cause
The propeller overspeed for undetermined reasons. A contributing factor was the lack of suitable terrain for the forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW04LA113
- Event ID
- 20040428X00522
- Case number
- FTW04LA113
- 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: 8d895d2ab1ea02079ed546dea9e6b6f93999535c499b73fe69ec890621083c4f; retrieved 2026-09-22T07:42:10.760Z.