Accident Van's RV-9A N20YY,
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ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 263650
 
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Date:Friday 4 June 2021
Time:18:45 LT
Type:Silhouette image of generic RV9 model; specific model in this crash may look slightly different    
Van's RV-9A
Owner/operator:Private
Registration: N20YY
MSN: 90778
Year of manufacture:2006
Total airframe hrs:971 hours
Engine model:Continental Titan X-361-A1A
Fatalities:Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 2
Aircraft damage: Substantial
Category:Accident
Location:West Portsmouth, Scioto County, OH -   United States of America
Phase: Landing
Nature:Private
Departure airport:Portsmouth Regional Airport, OH (PMH/KPMH)
Destination airport:Flemingsburg-Fleming Mason Airport, KY (KFGX)
Investigating agency: NTSB
Confidence Rating: Accident investigation report completed and information captured
Narrative:
The pilot reported he'd taken off and was about 10 minutes from the airport when the airplane's engine lost power and began to descend. The pilot misdiagnosed the power loss as an electronic ignition problem and troubleshot it as such. However, after turning on the electric fuel pump and switching fuel tanks several times, the pilot was unable to restore engine power and elected to perform a forced landing to a field. During the forced landing the airplane nosed over and came to rest inverted. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the rudder. Federal Aviation Administration inspectors reported that during a postaccident examination of the airplane the right fuel tank was empty, and the left fuel tank had about 4 gallons of fuel. The fuel selector had the right fuel tank selected. No other mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane were found that would have precluded normal operations. The pilot reported he spoke with the previous owner and was unaware that when switching fuel tanks, it could take about 10 seconds for the new tank to pick up fuel. The pilot reported that he had never run a fuel tank empty and was not familiar with how the engine would respond, and how long it would take for fuel to return to the engine when another fuel tank was selected.

Probable Cause: The pilot's improper use of the airplane's fuel system, which resulted in a total loss of engine power due to fuel starvation.

Accident investigation:
cover
  
Investigating agency: NTSB
Report number: CEN21LA250
Status: Investigation completed
Duration: 4 months
Download report: Final report

Sources:

NTSB CEN21LA250
FAA register: https://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/Search/NNumberResult

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N20YY

Location

Revision history:

Date/timeContributorUpdates
05-Jun-2021 13:34 Geno Added
05-Jun-2021 20:56 RobertMB Updated [Aircraft type, Location, Source, Narrative]
05-Jun-2021 21:02 RobertMB Updated [Location, Nature, Source]
05-Jun-2021 21:06 Geno Updated [Aircraft type, Registration, Cn, Operator, Location, Nature, Source, Narrative]
04-Jul-2022 12:57 ASN Update Bot Updated [Time, Operator, Other fatalities, Nature, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative, Category, Accident report]

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