IAD96LA121 · Corben Baby Ace C-1
Corben Baby Ace C-1 · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From Greater Portsmouth Regional Airport (PMH) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- IAD96LA121
- 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
Corben Baby Ace C-1
- Aircraft type
- Corben Baby Ace C-1
- Category
- Ultralight
- 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
- N75H
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Greater Portsmouth Regional Airport (PMH)To 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
- 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 contamination
- 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 › Contamination
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that he had just purchased the ultralight aircraft, and that a new engine had recently been installed. He stated that the carburetor was examined the day before the accident, and '...it seemed to run OK.' According to the pilot, his intention was to taxi the ultralight aircraft to accumulate some hours on the engine, but a gust of wind caught the wing, and the ultralight aircraft lifted off. He stated that he decided to remain in the traffic pattern and return to land, but the engine began to sputter, then lost power. The pilot stated that during the subsequent forced landing the ultralight aircraft struck rising terrain. Postaccident examination revealed evidence of fuel contamination. The FAA Inspector reported that sludge and water were visible in the lower portion of the fuel tank, and the fuel drain was clogged.
Probable cause
the pilot's inadequate preflight inspection, which resulted in a loss of engine power during the initial climb out. A related factor was the rising terrain encountered during the forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record IAD96LA121
- Event ID
- 20001208X06266
- Case number
- IAD96LA121
- 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: 21e0f6da96532527896dfcdb545a3642ad3195f98b88e596a9bc414a5f4c54f0; retrieved 2026-09-21T21:39:01.360Z.