NYC98LA140 · Fithian FALCON XP
Fithian FALCON XP · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From N77 to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC98LA140
- 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
Fithian FALCON XP
- Aircraft type
- Fithian FALCON XP
- 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
- UNREG
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From N77To 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
- En route · climb to cruise
- 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
- Engine assembly, crankshaft › Failure
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The private pilot was giving flight instruction to a student pilot in the airplane when the engine lost power. According to the pilot, after a simulated 'engine out' approach to the runway, the student pilot (SP) applied power to go around. About 50 to 100 feet above the trees located at the end of the runway, the pilot heard a loud 'screeching' sound, which was followed by a loss of engine power. During the forced landing, the airplane struck trees, spun around and impacted the ground. The airplane's engine continued to operate after the impact, but the propeller was not turning. Examination of the uncertified engine revealed, the crankshaft had separated between the front and rear cylinder. The pilot was operating the aircraft as an ultralight; however the FAA determined it was an unregistered experimental airplane. The pilot possessed a certificated repairman license for the airplane and stated he inspected the airplane according to manufacturer's recommendations. He did not possess an airframe or powerplant license. The engine manufacturer operating maual indicates the engine is uncertified and states in part 'This engine, by its design, is subject to sudden stoppage! ..Never fly the aircraft equipped with this engine at locations, airspeeds, altitudes, or other circumstances from which a successful no-power landing cannot be made, after sudden engine stoppage.'
Probable cause
The failure of the engine crankshaft, which resulted in a loss of engine power, and the pilot's improper decision to conduct flight over terrain unsuitable for the completion of a forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC98LA140
- Event ID
- 20001211X10674
- Case number
- NYC98LA140
- 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 1998-07-03.
- API snapshot SHA-256: c69b0d47b4e66d7b8604eb392ca5e12ce7d6151e466bec690a96069777fb72d3; retrieved 2026-09-21T11:26:21.749Z.