CHI95LA257 · Nanchang 18A
Nanchang 18A · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Canton-Plymouth-Mettetal Airport (1D2) to 3G8 · Batavia, NY
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI95LA257
- 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
Nanchang 18A
- Aircraft type
- Nanchang 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
- N46YK
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Canton-Plymouth-Mettetal Airport (1D2), Plymouth, MITo 3G8 · Batavia, NY
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- Pilot in command › Fuel tank selector position, improper
- Pilot in command › Operation with known deficiencies in equipment, performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT REPORTED THAT AFTER TAKEOFF, HE REMAINED AT A LOW ALTITUDE TO MANEUVER AROUND CLASS B AIRSPACE. ABOUT TEN MINUTES INTO THE FLIGHT, 'THE FUEL PRESSURE DROPPED TO ZERO' AND THE ENGINE LOST POWER. DURING THE FORCED LANDING, THE 'GEAR CAUGHT IN MUD,' COLLAPSED AND THE AIRPLANE NOSED OVER. IN HIS WRITTEN STATEMENT, THE PILOT REPORTED THAT 'PRIOR TO TAKEOFF, ON SEVERAL PREVIOUS FLIGHTS, FUEL SELECTOR WAS HARD TO MOVE.' EXAMINATION OF THE FUEL SYSTEM REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF PREIMPACT MALFUNCTION. THE FUEL SELECTOR VALVE FUNCTIONED NORMALLY WHEN TESTED, HOWEVER, THE VALVE WAS VERY DIFFICULT TO OPERATE FROM THE PILOT'S SEAT. IT WAS POSITIONED NEAR THE FRONT LEFT CORNER OF THE SEAT, AND ACCORDING TO A FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION INSPECTOR, WAS 'DIFFICULT TO MANIPULATE, AND IT WAS DIFFICULT TO DETERMINE WHICH TANK WAS SELECTED OR IF THE VALVE WAS IN THE PROPER POSITION.'
Probable cause
the pilot's operation of the airplane with a known deficiency in the fuel selector, and his improper positioning of the fuel selector. A factor relating to the accident was: the fuel selector's restriction of movement.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI95LA257
- Event ID
- 20001207X04183
- Case number
- CHI95LA257
- 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: c7b6d38089e51751f298f95eff026f49a2a415466b373751ee8e79498593b53c; retrieved 2026-09-22T23:31:13.899Z.