FTW97LA263 · Bronner STEEN SKYBOLT STEEN SKYB
Bronner STEEN SKYBOLT STEEN SKYB · Accident: loss of engine power while maneuvering
From 2C0 to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW97LA263
- 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
Bronner STEEN SKYBOLT STEEN SKYB
- Aircraft type
- Bronner STEEN SKYBOLT
- 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
- N773HD
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 2C0To 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
- Maneuvering
- 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 exhaustion; 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 › Exhaustion
- Fuel system, line › Leak
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The Skybolt experimental airplane was flying east of the airport when the 'engine start[ed] missing.' The aircraft entered downwind for runway 11 at the Eagle Air Park Airport. The pilot reported that while on crosswind, about 12 minutes after takeoff, he smelled 'raw fuel, looked down on floor board, [and] saw fuel.' The fuel pressure which was normally 30 psi, began to fluctuate 'radically,' and the engine 'cut out.' The pilot turned on the electric fuel pump, and the engine 'came back up to power.' After turning final, the engine started 'cutting in and out, [the] fuel pressure could not be kept up,' and the engine lost power. Unable to reach a suitable area, the pilot landed the airplane in trees; the airplane then 'hit [the] ground flat.' Prior to the accident flight, the pilot fueled the airplane with 15 gallons of 100 octane low lead aviation fuel. An FAA inspector's examination of the fuel system revealed no apparent signs of rupture or lack of integrity, and there was no fuel in the fuel tank. After the airplane was moved another FAA inspector pumped the wobble pump and could smell fuel. The pilot/owner found that one of the hoses that was connected to the wobble pump, which was located under the pilot's seat, had been leaking fuel at its clamp. Fuel stains were found on the fabric aft of the wobble pump.
Probable cause
a fuel leak at a wobble pump fuel hose clamp, which resulted in loss of fuel and fuel exhaustion. A related factor was the lack of suitable terrain for a forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW97LA263
- Event ID
- 20001208X08377
- Case number
- FTW97LA263
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1997-07-12.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 440fd9616f996e7a33436a814f00cc65f71fc64bace0a1de75cd5f19f48c676e; retrieved 2026-09-21T11:58:59.578Z.