DFW05CA133 · Grumman 164-B
Scott Flying Service Grumman 164-B · Accident: in flight collision with object during initial climb
From Fontaine, AR to Fontaine, AR
Event
- NTSB case
- DFW05CA133
- 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 164-B
- Aircraft type
- Grumman 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
- N3629K
- Operator
- Scott Flying Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fontaine, ARTo Fontaine, AR
- 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
- 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
- In flight collision with object
- 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
- Wire, static
- 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 › Clearance, 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
The 9,100-hour commercial pilot reported that with the aircraft full of fuel (80 gallons) and a load of 2,250 pounds of fertilizer, he set engine power and departed downwind (10 mph tailwind) on a 2,600 foot by 20 foot paved runway. During the departure, the airplane's main landing gear "clipped" the top of a levee just beyond the departure end of runway 22. The pilot stated that he lowered the nose and flew in ground-effect until he could accelerate and fly "up-and-over" some powerlines. After clearing the powerlines the airplane started to "settle", the pilot decided to dump the load of fertilizer and start a shallow turn into the wind. With the airplane continuing to "settle", the pilot elected to land on a dirt road; however, the airplane struck some trees and an electric wire, causing the airplane to pitch down and impact the ground. The density altitude was calculated at 1,964 feet.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain clearance during a downwind takeoff with a full load of fertilizer. Factor contributing to the accident were the prevailing tailwind and the high density altitude.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DFW05CA133
- Event ID
- 20050622X00831
- Case number
- DFW05CA133
- 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: f3d01f1c82cab97b21d662d8265360315423cc2d4b7f2c4692a5139472f1f76c; retrieved 2026-09-22T05:52:33.647Z.