CEN26LA076 · Nanchang China CJ-6A
Nanchang China CJ-6A · Accident: ground collision while standing
From Burnet Municipal Airport/Kate Craddock Field (BMQ) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN26LA076
- 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
- 0
- 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
Nanchang China CJ-6A
- Aircraft type
- Nanchang China CJ-6
- 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
- N559TX
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Burnet Municipal Airport/Kate Craddock Field (BMQ), Burnet, TXTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 57 years (built 1968)
- 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
- Standing · engine(s) start-up
- Defining eventThe 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
- Ground collision
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft handling/service
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane was parked on the ramp next to a hangar as the pilot attempted to start the engine with the help of two others. The engine was difficult to start, so the pilot exited the airplane and elected to hand prop the engine. Witnesses stated that the engine started suddenly and unexpectedly. The airplane turned right away from the hangar and taxied quickly. The pilot, who was in front of the left wing, ran toward the cockpit door and attempted to climb into the airplane. The pilot fell off the wing and sustained serious injuries. The unoccupied airplane continued across a taxiway, briefly became airborne over the runway, then settled onto the grass and impacted the airport perimeter fence. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage and both wings. Due to the pilot’s injuries, he was unable to provide a statement for the investigation. Multiple attempts to verify the magneto switch position were unsuccessful. The position of the magneto switch at the time of the accident could not be determined.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to secure the airplane before hand-propping the engine, which resulted in the airplane’s unexpected movement and subsequent impact with an airport fence.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN26LA076
- Event ID
- 20260106202249
- Case number
- CEN26LA076
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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, cause areas. 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: d7ceedb148e72a0f974cde4550d14bddb5087c3bf6ebb7acd6e63024ce285d18; retrieved 2026-09-16T20:38:50.088Z.