FTW97LA344 · Stinson 108-3
Stinson 108-3 · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Cedar Island Airport (WI10)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW97LA344
- 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
Stinson 108-3
- Aircraft type
- Stinson 108
- 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
- N800C
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Cedar Island Airport (WI10), WESTOSHA, WI
- 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 starvation
- 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
- Fuel system, vent › Blocked(partial)
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
After refueling an empty right fuel tank, the airplane commenced a takeoff roll, and about 400 feet down the runway, the engine 'quit', and the takeoff was aborted. Afterwards, the pilot made several engine run ups and high speed taxis to diagnose the problem. With no problems detected, he attempted another takeoff, and climbing through 75 feet AGL the 'engine lost power' again. The pilot made a 'hard left turn' to avoid electrical wires, trees, and houses. The airplane then impacted down sloping terrain. Fuel samples were found to be clear and free of contaminants. After the accident, the pilot said that it was common to find mud wasp nests throughout the airframe, and that the right fuel tank had been empty for 3-4 weeks. He stated that he thinks that the fuel vent was blocked by a mud wasp nest. This would result in a vacuum effect because of the unoccupied space between the fuel and top of the tank. The vacuum effect would prevent fuel from entering the fuel lines and result in fuel starvation to the engine.
Probable cause
Fuel starvation due to partially blocked fuel vents. Factors were: the pilot's inadequate preflight inspection of the airplane; the pilot's improper decision to continue operation of the airplane with known deficiencies; and the lack of suitable terrain for the forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW97LA344
- Event ID
- 20001208X08843
- Case number
- FTW97LA344
- 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: 6ab1d0514e38012ee09e114947b77fa0b7d5c49614783b6faace412deaec77dc; retrieved 2026-09-21T11:49:28.180Z.