CHI95LA221 · WSK PZL Mielec M-18A DROMADER M-18A DROM
WSK PZL Mielec M-18A DROMADER M-18A DROM · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Helena, AR (no airport) to K84 · LEES SUMMIT, MO
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI95LA221
- 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
WSK PZL Mielec M-18A DROMADER M-18A DROM
- Aircraft type
- WSK PZL Mielec M-18
- 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
- N168RA
- Operator
- Kratz, Mike · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Helena, AR (no airport)To K84 · LEES SUMMIT, MO
- 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 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, vent › Blocked(partial)
- Pilot in command › Flight manuals, not used
- Pilot in command › Fuel management, not understood
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Although the pilot had accumulated 2,400 hours flight time in the type of airplane involved in this accident, he stated that he had never flown one with the fuel management system this one had. He stated that he did not read the flight manual. Because he had previously noted uneven fuel flow from the tanks, he did not think it unusual that the low fuel warning light on the left tank came on therefore he elected to continue flight. About fifteen minutes later the engine lost power and necessitated a forced landing. There was a handle in this airplane marked 'Overflow Fuel Valve - Pull.' The manual indicates that this valve is intended to prevent engine failure in flight, by equalizing the fuel between left and right fuel tanks. The pilot said he thought it was some sort of dump valve and made no attempt to use it. Other operators of this type of airplane stated that they had experienced fuel vent problems when they imported and assembled the airplane. This airplane had operated 1.7 hours prior to the accident flight and then operated 2.5 hours prior to the power loss.
Probable cause
the pilot's not using the flight manual and not understanding the fuel management for this particular airplane. Factors were the fuel system vent partial blockage and information unclear (phraseology) for the fuel management valve.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI95LA221
- Event ID
- 20001207X03896
- Case number
- CHI95LA221
- 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: 0dcac6702538152031fded564e75a553680e6002bb6c34916fe32209d0a94cc9; retrieved 2026-09-22T23:37:12.469Z.