diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index d17ceaa2..365d9275 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@ NEWS
   * remove compress cache file if compression or write failed (#1150)
   * fixed body handling of status 300 requests 
   * spawn-fcgi: only try to connect to unix socket (not tcp) before spawning (#1575)
+  * fix sending source of cgi script instead of 500 error if fork fails
 
 - 1.4.18 - 2007-09-09
 
diff --git a/src/mod_cgi.c b/src/mod_cgi.c
index 01608f44..82ae78b6 100644
--- a/src/mod_cgi.c
+++ b/src/mod_cgi.c
@@ -1004,6 +1004,7 @@ static int cgi_create_env(server *srv, connection *con, plugin_data *p, buffer *
 	case -1:
 		/* error */
 		log_error_write(srv, __FILE__, __LINE__, "ss", "fork failed:", strerror(errno));
+		return -1;
 		break;
 	default: {
 		handler_ctx *hctx;