LAX97LA040 · Moody RV-6
Moody RV-6 · Accident: loss of engine power on approach
From 7E7 · Camp Verde, AZ to P52
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX97LA040
- 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
Moody RV-6
- Aircraft type
- Moody RV-6
- 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
- N12033
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Possible conflict
- From 7E7 · Camp Verde, AZTo P52
- 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 downwind
- 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
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Cottonwood, AZ, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
The pilot stated that after returning from a local flight, he entered the airport traffic pattern for a landing on runway 32. He said that carburetor heat was pulled on and an initial power change was made from cruise power to 2,200 rpm. After reducing the power further to 1,800 rpm, the engine began to run rough. The pilot attempted to increase engine power; however, the engine continued to run rough until it finally stopped producing power altogether. While the engine problems were occurring, the pilot declared a mayday and attempted to land on runway 14, but he had insufficient altitude and the airplane collided with terrain about 200 yards short of the pavement. The pilot reported that both fuel tanks had been topped off the day before the accident flight, and a preflight check showed no sign of moisture. Postaccident inspection of the engine by an airframe and powerplant mechanic revealed no discrepancy. The temperature at the time of the accident was 59 degrees Fahrenheit, and the dew point was 34 degrees Fahrenheit. Reference to a carburetor icing probablity chart for the temperature/dew point spread revealed that the points were in an area of the chart delineated 'moderate icing cruise power/serious icing glide power.'
Probable cause
loss of engine power for undetermined reason(s).
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX97LA040
- Event ID
- 20001208X07070
- Case number
- LAX97LA040
- 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: 5f2692f5b9b9fd8c4b872e3591cbd0e910b776c8f20be157beba4c5564385370; retrieved 2026-09-21T12:19:39.516Z.