FTW98LA047 · Reid CAPELLA XS
Reid CAPELLA XS · Accident: loss of engine power on approach
From 77T to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW98LA047
- 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
Reid CAPELLA XS
- Aircraft type
- Reid CAPELLA XS
- 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
- N89FW
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 77TTo 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
- Approach
- 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 · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot initiated a forced landing to a field, following a loss of engine power, at the downwind-to-base leg position for the runway. During the landing flare, the airplane struck a fence. The owner reported that the fuel system and ignition system operated properly; however, upon disassembly of the cylinders, the rear cylinder exhibited scoring, evidence of overheating, and a seized piston ring. The owner reported sending the components for inspection by a Rotex authorized technician; who, according to the owner confirmed that the engine had seized and that the oil injector was the cause. The person to whom the engine was sent for examination stated that he 'did not confirm that the oil injector was the cause.' He further stated that a differential air flow to the engine, an improper fuel air ratio, an improper fuel oil mixture, and/or overheating could have contributed to the loss of engine power. This is not a certified aircraft engine and conforms to no aircraft standards. It is for use in experimental, uncertificated aircraft and vehicles only in which an engine failure will not compromise safety.
Probable cause
The loss of engine power due to an undetermined reason. A factor was the lack of suitable terrain for the forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW98LA047
- Event ID
- 20001208X09176
- Case number
- FTW98LA047
- 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: 2a3fd9706350554192c59ad0ab4a400b6cd1fec56f4e1040537a66273ff0d6bd; retrieved 2026-09-22T18:12:32.687Z.