FTW04FA232 · Fairchild M-62A-3
Fairchild M-62A-3 · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From C David Campbell Field Corsicana Municipal Airport (CRS) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW04FA232
- 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
- 2 · 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
Fairchild M-62A-3
- Aircraft type
- Fairchild M-62
- 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
- N79307
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From C David Campbell Field Corsicana Municipal Airport (CRS), Corsicana, TXTo not recorded
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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/spin
- 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
- Fuel system, carburetor › Loose part/bolt/nut/clamp/etc
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A witness observed the single engine vintage airplane in level flight and suddenly nose dive into the ground shortly after takeoff. Several witnesses at the airport reported that the pilot taxied the airplane to the runway run-up area and taxi back to a hangar, where he performed work on the airplane. Upon completing the work, the pilot taxied back to the runway, and proceeded to takeoff. A private individual who shared the hangar with the 8,000-hour pilot stated that he found a can of solvent and a sparkplug cleaner out of place and next to the air compressor the day of the accident. Examination of the airframe and engine revealed they were free of anomalies. Examination of the carburetor (Model MA-4-5, part number 10-2301, serial number 3908881) revealed the lower piece of the two piece venturi was dislodged and cocked over to one side. The legs of the lower piece were fractured and displayed evidence of carbon. The mating gasket between the upper and low body of the carburetor was imploded in two locations. Excessive soot and blackening was observed in the carburetor throat during disassembly examination.
Probable cause
The loss of engine power due to a faulty carburetor and the pilot's failure to maintain airspeed sufficient for flight resulting in an inadvertent stall/spin during the forced landing after takeoff.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW04FA232
- Event ID
- 20040913X01407
- Case number
- FTW04FA232
- 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: cf14ec9fb411c39bd6df5c4416131083b812009c7f5cf241f849edbc08efe5ab; retrieved 2026-09-20T18:21:09.832Z.