ATL95LA123 · Knosp CORBIN JR. ACE-E CORBIN JR.
Knosp CORBIN JR. ACE-E CORBIN JR. · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Cape Fear Regional Jetport / Howie Franklin Field Airport (SUT) to Rockingham, NC
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL95LA123
- 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
Knosp CORBIN JR. ACE-E CORBIN JR.
- Aircraft type
- Knosp CORBIN JR ACE-E
- 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
- N74RK
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Cape Fear Regional Jetport / Howie Franklin Field Airport (SUT), Southport, NCTo Rockingham, NC
- 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 (mechanical failure)
- 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 starvation
- 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 › Starvation
- Fuel system, filter › Blocked(total)
- Fuel system, gascolator › Contamination, other than water
- Fuel system, line › Contamination, other than water
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE EN ROUTE TO ROCKINGHAM, NORTH CAROLINA, THE AIRCRAFT EXPERIENCED A GRADUAL LOSS OF ENGINE POWER. THE CONDITION DETERIORATED TO THE POINT WHERE THE PILOT WAS FORCED TO EXECUTE AN EMERGENCY LANDING IN A FIELD. THE AIRCRAFT TOUCHED DOWN IN SOFT DIRT AND NOSED OVER. AN EXAMINATION OF THE FUEL SYSTEM FOUND RUST CONTAMINATION IN THE FUEL TANKS, FUEL LINES AND GASOLATOR. THE PILOT HAD PURCHASED THE AIRCRAFT JUST PRIOR TO THE FLIGHT. HE HAD FLOWN THE AIRCRAFT ONCE BEFORE HE PURCHASED IT, AND HAD EXPERIENCED NO PROBLEMS WITH THE AIRCRAFT. THE PREVIOUS OWNER STATED THAT THE AIRCRAFT HAD BEEN SITTING FOR A LONG PERIOD OF TIME WITH A MINIMAL AMOUNT OF FUEL IN THE TANKS. THE PILOT REFUELED THE AIRCRAFT AFTER PURCHASE, AND FOUND NO CONTAMINATION WHEN THE FUEL TANK SUMPS WERE DRAINED BEFORE THE ACCIDENT FLIGHT.
Probable cause
CONTAMINATION OF THE FUEL SYSTEM WHICH RESULTED IN FUEL STARVATION AND A TOTAL LOSS OF ENGINE POWER. .
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL95LA123
- Event ID
- 20001207X03856
- Case number
- ATL95LA123
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: 448eed6d6fabb2f8c0d1dc541e786567895811a90e1dd3253588e06b8ac76682; retrieved 2026-09-21T22:12:12.926Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: destination. The narrative states the flight was "EN ROUTE TO ROCKINGHAM, NORTH CAROLINA" when the engine lost power; the recorded destination is Greensboro.