ANC96LA046 · Stinson ST-75
Stinson ST-75 · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From Merrill Field (MRI) to Homer Airport (HOM)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC96LA046
- 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
Stinson ST-75
- Aircraft type
- Stinson ST-75
- 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
- N235C
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Merrill Field (MRI), AKTo Homer Airport (HOM), Homer, AK
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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; Tree(s)
- 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
- Pilot in command › Fuel tank selector position, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane had a new fuel valve installed and the mechanic put 10 gallons of fuel in each wing tank to perform the installation and tests. Prior to takeoff, the pilot filled the right fuel tank and did not visually check the left fuel tank quantity. The pilot stated that his taxi and runup took approximately 15 minutes. This was accomplished with the left fuel tank selected. The pilot made the takeoff and after reaching 300 feet above the ground, the engine lost power. He selected the right fuel tank and some power was restored. He stated that he was too low to the ground so he turned his attention to the forced landing. Later examination showed that the left fuel tank had 15 gallons of fuel. However, the left wing tip was resting on the ground and the fuel tanks interconnect through the fuel valve even when the fuel valve is in the off position. The aircraft owner's operating manual pre takeoff checklist states that the fuel selector should be placed on the tank with the greatest amount of fuel. The engine was examined and no mechanical failure was found.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to select the proper fuel tank prior to takeoff resulting in fuel starvation. A factor in the accident was the pilot's failure to follow the checklist.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC96LA046
- Event ID
- 20001208X05495
- Case number
- ANC96LA046
- 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: 05768db2527e86d7606b352974c4fa5608fab537bd7c2d7d7f6b0ed235018eef; retrieved 2026-09-22T22:39:02.679Z.