CHI96LA178 · Dickinson FISHER CLASSIC FISHER CLA
Dickinson FISHER CLASSIC FISHER CLA · Accident: loss of engine power en route
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI96LA178
- 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
Dickinson FISHER CLASSIC FISHER CLA
- Aircraft type
- Dickinson FISHER CLASSIC
- 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
- N6292B
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- Pilot in command › Altitude/clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that it was the first flight of his home built airplane. The airframe was new but he bought a used engine which had 211 total hours on it. The aircraft had not been inspected for airworthiness by the FAA and had not been certified prior to the first flight. The pilot reported that he climbed to 700 feet AGL and flew for 12 minutes, and then the engine quit. He reported that he could not get to an open field and landed in a wooded area. The airplane landed in the trees which cushioned the impact with the ground. The examination of the aircraft revealed that the engine had not seized. The prop was rotated and the engine exhibited continuity. The engine was examined and no discrepancies were noted. The fuel tank was inspected and no discrepancies were found. The fuel pump was inspected and it was determined that the pump was an aviation fuel pump with the designed 'weep hole.' The fuel pump's inlet and impulse hoses had sharp bends in them.
Probable cause
the pilot failed to maintain adequate altitude and clearance from the trees, and had made an improper in-flight decision when he got to far from a suitable landing area. The reason for the loss of power failure was undetermined.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI96LA178
- Event ID
- 20001208X05734
- Case number
- CHI96LA178
- 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: dc878d1ab5b5d98a7c6ff6a9aa1695da8527aaee5416289cb60832b9ada18fd9; retrieved 2026-09-21T21:48:47.251Z.