FTW04LA164 · Grumman G-164A
Grumman G-164A · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during takeoff
From Garwood, TX to Garwood, TX
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW04LA164
- 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
Grumman G-164A
- Aircraft type
- Grumman G-164
- 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
- N6567
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Garwood, TXTo Garwood, 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 137: Agricultural
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- Landing gear, axle › Separation
- Landing gear, wheel › Separation
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that he was starting the 4th load (of 12 loads) when he topped-off the hopper with 1,500 pounds of 46% UREA fertilizer prior to his departure from the 4,000 feet long by 100 feet wide dirt airstrip. During the takeoff roll, as the airplane approached lift-off, the right main landing gear axle and wheel separated from the landing gear strut. The strut "dug" into the runway and separated from the airplane. The pilot further reported that the engine and propeller "dug" into the runway and caused the airplane to nose-over. The airplane came to rest in the inverted position. Examination by the FAA inspector revealed that 2 bolts from the left main landing gear (part number AN 509-616-35 and MS 20008H-22) were fractured. The fractures showed evidence of fatigue. The aircraft was reported having accumulated a total of 11,006 hours since new; however, the time since the installation of the failed bolts could not be established.
Probable cause
The separation of the right main landing gear wheel and axle during take-off. Contributing factors were the fatigue of the bolts on the right main landing gear and the rough and uneven terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW04LA164
- Event ID
- 20040623X00854
- Case number
- FTW04LA164
- 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: 5d25700c11f8302de04b3d787841dfc08bdeb369ad09b080a77e3167010b7c0e; retrieved 2026-09-22T07:18:43.983Z.