NYC96LA005 · Kelosky PULSAR XP
Kelosky PULSAR XP · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From 8G7 to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC96LA005
- 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
Kelosky PULSAR XP
- Aircraft type
- Kelosky PULSAR XP
- 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
- N95RK
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 8G7To not recorded
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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; Wire, static
- 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, line fitting › Blocked(partial)
- Pilot in command › Lift-off, inadvertent
- 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 airplane lifted off during a high speed taxi check. The pilot believed there was insufficient runway remaining to land and stop, so he continued climbing. During the climb, about 200 feet above the ground, the engine lost power. The pilot performed a forced landing, during which, the airplane impacted a wire and nosed down. Postaccident examination revealed that there was a fuel flow restriction at the left wing, quick disconnect fitting. The fuel selector was found positioned to the left tank, and fuel was observed leaking from the left tank. A safety bulletin was issued by the manufacturer, which stated that the quick disconnect fittings were restricting fuel flow, and the manufacturer 'advised everyone in the September, 1995 Newsletter to cease flight operations until replacing the quick disconnects.' Additionally, the pilot reported he had ordered the new quick disconnects, but had not received them as of the accident date.
Probable cause
The pilot inadvertently allowed the airplane to lift-off during a high speed taxi check, while operating the airplane with a known deficiency that consisted of a partially blocked quick disconnect fitting, which resulted in fuel starvation and the loss of engine power.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC96LA005
- Event ID
- 20001207X04768
- Case number
- NYC96LA005
- 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: ac9bd45fda9f5af0e734271a240c42a42400b9986bf3556b90f67226d816985e; retrieved 2026-09-22T23:10:19.469Z.