CHI96LA285 · Ramesbotham CH701
Ramesbotham CH701 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Graham Field (7K7) to Graham Field (7K7)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI96LA285
- 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
Ramesbotham CH701
- Aircraft type
- Ramesbotham CH701
- 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
- N4053G
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Graham Field (7K7)To Graham Field (7K7)
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Pilot in command › Fuel management, delayed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that he flew the flight using the left fuel tank. When the fuel level in the left tank got low, he attempted to feed the engine off the right tank at which time the engine lost power. The pilot was on final approach to land at the time. The airplane contacted a powerline during the forced landing approach to a soybean field. The airplane came to rest in the field. Each fuel tank has an On-Off Selector. According to the pilot there is a return fuel line from the fuel pump to the right tank. Each tank holds seven gallons of fuel. Inspection revealed the left tank was empty and the right tank was full after the accident. The pilot suspected there was air in the line from the right tank which prevented fuel flow.
Probable cause
the pilot's delay in switching fuel tanks which resulted in fuel starvation. Factors associated with the accident were the low altitude at which the loss of engine power occurred and the powerline which was contacted.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI96LA285
- Event ID
- 20001208X06450
- Case number
- CHI96LA285
- 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: 1d5e66061bb7b7c46766712d11588096a13ca6b0d91a45aff1832260dd340074; retrieved 2026-09-22T21:30:37.277Z.