FTW98LA385 · JOBE'S TE-1
JOBE'S TE-1 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during takeoff
From Alamogordo White Sands Regional Airport (ALM) to French Valley Airport (F70)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW98LA385
- 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
JOBE'S TE-1
- Aircraft type
- Jobe's TE-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
- N6EZ
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Alamogordo White Sands Regional Airport (ALM)To French Valley Airport (F70), MURRIETA/TEMECU, CA
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, improper
- Terrain condition › None suitable
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot had just purchased the airplane (2 hours flight experience in make and model; total flight time 118 hours) and was departing Alamogordo (elevation 4,197 feet; density altitude 6,741) for the cross-country trip home to California. The pilot reported that he performed a 'long engine run-up' and that the airplane 'lost power right after takeoff.' The airplane came to rest approximately 480 feet from the runway in rough, high vegetated terrain. The takeoff had been attempted at a weight of 1,431 pounds, and the designer recommended a maximum takeoff weight of 1,325 pounds. The engine was 29 years old with numerous time periods of storage with no documentation of preservation or overhaul according to manufacturer's recommendations. The engine was examined at the factory and the pistons revealed worn rings, heavy blow-by signatures, and scuffing on the piston skirts. The #3 piston had a record of low compression and exhibited black carbon deposits on top.
Probable cause
The improper maintenance procedures (failure to preserve the engine during numerous storage periods over 30 days) and the lack of suitable terrain for a forced landing. Factors were the pilot's lack of experience in type of aircraft and the high density altitude weather conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW98LA385
- Event ID
- 20001211X11051
- Case number
- FTW98LA385
- 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: 6e23449972f969573163c47ce715cb947664266be63c3e318002a8634149a51d; retrieved 2026-09-21T11:20:54.313Z.