CHI94FA116 · Canadair CL=601-3A
Crystal Air and Aviation Canadair CL=601-3A · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From BVT · Burlington, VT to Long Beach International Airport (LGB)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI94FA116
- 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
Canadair CL=601-3A
- Aircraft type
- Canadair CL-601
- 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
- N88HA
- Operator
- Crystal Air and Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From BVT · Burlington, VTTo Long Beach International Airport (LGB), Long Beach, CA
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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 (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Fuel contamination
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Water
- Fuel system › Contamination, water
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOTS FLEW TO LAWRENCE, MA TO REFUEL FOR THE RETURN FLIGHT BACK TO THE WEST COAST. THEY STATED THE FUEL TRUCK MALFUNCTIONED AND STOPPED AFTER IT HAD PUMPED ABOUT 221 GALS INTO THE AIRPLANE. THEY WERE WARNED ABOUT POSSIBLE FUEL CONTAMINATION, BUT THEY REPORTED SUMP SAMPLES DID NOT REVEAL ABNORMAL AMOUNTS OF WATER. THE PILOTS OBSERVED ERRONEOUS FUEL TOTALIZER INDICATIONS DURING THE LOW ALT FLIGHT TO BURLINGTON, VT, WHERE THEY TOPPED OFF WITH FUEL. THE FLIGHT CREW STATED WHILE IN CRUISE FLIGHT AT FL410, THE LEFT ENG LOW FUEL PRESSURE LIGHT ILLUMINATED. SOMETIME LATER, THE LEFT ENG LOST POWER, FOLLOWED BY A LOSS OF POWER IN THE RIGHT ENG. NUMEROUS RESTART ATTEMPTS ON BOTH ENGINES AND THE APU WERE UNSUCCESSFUL. THE PILOTS MANEUVERED TOWARDS THE NEAREST AIRPORT, BUT WERE UNABLE TO VISUALLY IDENTIFY THE RUNWAY IN TIME TO LAND ON IT. THE AIRPLANE TOUCHED DOWN IN A FIELD, STRIKING AN IRRIGATION STRUCTURE & TREES. WATER-CONTAMINATED FUEL WAS FOUND IN THE FUEL TANKS, FUEL FILTERS, AND THROUGHOUT THE FUEL SYSTEM.
Probable cause
the pilot in command's inadequate planning/decision making and inadequate preflight inspection after receiving a load of contaminated fuel. Related factors are the contaminated fuel, improper refueling by FBO personnel, and the dark night light conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI94FA116
- Event ID
- 20001206X00859
- Case number
- CHI94FA116
- 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. 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: 938031adfb84432fd65b15d5cf5905cd26c3cd396565120533e483364840938c; retrieved 2026-09-21T14:03:08.799Z.