SEA98LA181 · Kelly KOLB MARK III KOLB MARK
Kelly KOLB MARK III KOLB MARK · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Cashmere-Dryden Airport (8S2) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA98LA181
- 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
Kelly KOLB MARK III KOLB MARK
- Aircraft type
- Kelly KOLB MARK
- 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
- N62691
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Cashmere-Dryden Airport (8S2), Cashmere, WATo 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
- 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; Tree(s)
- 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, pump › Blocked(partial)
- Owner/builder › Maintenance, alignment, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
While approximately 1,800 feet above the ground (AGL), during a full-power climb, the aircraft's engine lost power and the propeller stopped turning. The pilot, who was over a town at the time of the power loss, attempted a forced landing in an open field, but the airplane struck a tree during the flare/touchdown. It was later discovered that the front cover on the engine-driven fuel pump was out of alignment by 60 degrees, resulting in a restriction to fuel flow through the pump. The pilot, who was not aware of the alignment marks on the surface of the pump, said that he had disassembled and reassembled the pump while trying to fit it in the aircraft during the construction process.
Probable cause
Fuel starvation caused by the partial blockage of the fuel pump chambers as a result of the misalignment of the fuel pump front cover by the pilot/builder. Factors include trees in the area in which the pilot attempted the forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA98LA181
- Event ID
- 20001211X11171
- Case number
- SEA98LA181
- 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: 31bfe2680f590dc6586c6739df999f0a4bdecbeadc00146078c9d1fa100bf2ec; retrieved 2026-09-21T11:20:22.359Z.