LAX98FA208 · Frandsen MIDGET MUSTANG MM-1 MIDGET MUS
Frandsen MIDGET MUSTANG MM-1 MIDGET MUS · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From Terrace Bay Airport (TCY) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX98FA208
- 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
- 1 · 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
Frandsen MIDGET MUSTANG MM-1 MIDGET MUS
- Aircraft type
- Frandsen MIDGET MUSTANG MM-1
- 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
- N76JF
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Terrace Bay Airport (TCY)To 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
- 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
- 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, transmission
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Fuel system, cap › Obstructed
- Fuel system, vent › Obstructed
- Owner/pilot mechanic › Maintenance, inspection, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The experimental airplane was on climbout following a touch-and-go landing. During the climb, the engine began sputtering and lost power. The airplane leveled off momentarily and then began a steep left turn back toward the runway. During the turn, the airplane descended and collided with a power line. The engine had lost power in flight on several prior occasions. The airplane was not equipped with a fuel boost pump or an engine-driven fuel pump. The fuel tank was mounted in the fuselage, immediately forward of the instrument panel with no accumulator tank. The headspace between the fuel tank and the carburetor was reduced whenever the airplane's pitch attitude increased. A minimum of 0.5 pounds of fuel pressure at the carburetor inlet is required for operation of the engine. The minimum flow volume required for engine operation is not specified. The tank had a single, under wing vent line. Dirt and a piece of plastic were found lodged in the 90-degree elbow of the fuel tank vent line at the point where the line enters the tank. The dirt had formed a ball and was located on the tank side of the piece of plastic. The fuel tank was also equipped with a vented fuel cap that was found in place; however, the vent hole in the cap had been covered with gray silicon sealant.
Probable cause
inadequate maintenance/inspection by the owner/pilot that resulted in an obstructed fuel vent system and a subsequent loss of engine power during takeoff.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX98FA208
- Event ID
- 20001211X10340
- Case number
- LAX98FA208
- 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 1998-06-30.
- API snapshot SHA-256: b111952f3ebf864d0f3dfcf6ec509d9e05dc0504980bf144de4a8379a249497a; retrieved 2026-09-20T22:31:23.551Z.