DFW07CA098 · Flagg Kitfox IV
Flagg Kitfox IV · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From Dillard Ranch Airport (TE01) to Hilltop Lakes Airport (0TE4)
Event
- NTSB case
- DFW07CA098
- 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
Flagg Kitfox IV
- Aircraft type
- Flagg KITFOX
- 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
- N674F
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Dillard Ranch Airport (TE01), Centerville, TXTo Hilltop Lakes Airport (0TE4)
- 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
- Total loss of engine power (mechanical 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
- Induction air ducting › Failure
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The 80-horsepower engine on the single-engine experimental airplane lost power during the initial takeoff climb from runway 06. The 133-hour private pilot added that the engine began sputtering and running rough during the initial climb. The pilot added that he tried to pull the choke and alter the throttle settings in an attempt to regain engine power, to no avail. The pilot initiated a forced landing to a nearby clearing; however, the pilot did not have sufficient altitude and the airplane landed in trees. The airplane came to rest suspended in trees in a near vertical nose low attitude. The pilot was able to exit the airplane without injuries. Post-accident inspection of the engine revealed that the carburetor rubber flange coupler had failed, which resulted in the reported loss of engine power. The pilot added that the coupler (part number 267788) needs to have Kevlar material added in the injection mold process to prevent similar mishaps. The airplane sustained structural damage to both wings. The longeron and horizontal stabilizer were both bent. The airplane and engine were reported to have accumulated a total of 275-hours since new. The weather at the nearest weather reporting station located approximately 29 miles to the north north-east of the accident site reported calm winds, clear skies, and 20-statute mile visibility.
Probable cause
The loss of engine power due to the failure of the air induction ducting. 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 DFW07CA098
- Event ID
- 20070530X00658
- Case number
- DFW07CA098
- 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: 780d483c16a46ace6804cc646b143ee4488ef1fa92dcd2a48da3a3ef4ce1da3a; retrieved 2026-09-22T03:52:35.158Z.