BFO93LA117 · Holmes SPECIAL
Holmes SPECIAL · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) while maneuvering
From DUFF FIELD, KY to K20 · Hazard, KY
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO93LA117
- 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
Holmes SPECIAL
- Aircraft type
- Holmes SPECIAL
- 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
- N485MH
- Operator
- Stephen L. Smith · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From DUFF FIELD, KYTo K20 · Hazard, KY
- 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
- Maneuvering · turn to reverse direction
- 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 (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
- 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
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AFTER TAKEOFF, THE PILOT MADE A RIGHT TURN INTO A HOLLOW BETWEEN RISING TERRAIN. HE REALIZED THAT THE AIRPLANE COULD NOT ATTAIN A CLIMB RATE NEEDED TO CLEAR THE TERRAIN, SO HE MADE A STEEP TURN. DURING THE TURN, THE AIRPLANE'S ENGINE LOST PARTIAL POWER. DURING A FORCED LANDING, THE AIRPLANE IMPACTED A CREEK BANK AND WAS DAMAGED. THE PILOT STATED THAT THERE WAS ABOUT 6 GALLONS OF FUEL ON BOARD FOR THE FIVE MILE FLIGHT. THE FUEL CAPACITY OF THE AIRPLANE WAS 23 GALLONS. POST ACCIDENT EXAMINATION OF THE AIRFRAME AND ENGINE DID NOT REVEAL ANY ANOMALIES. THE FUEL TANK WAS RUPTURED AND EMPTY. THE FUEL LINE FROM THE FUEL PUMP TO THE INJECTION SERVO CONTAINED THREE TO FOUR DROPS OF FUEL. THE FUEL LINE FROM THE SERVO TO THE FLOW DIVIDER CONTAINED ENOUGH FUEL TO FILL HALF OF THE LINE. THE PILOT STATED THAT THE AIRCRAFT WAS MODELED VERY CLOSELY AFTER A 2 SEAT PITTS SPECIAL, WHICH WAS PLACARDED TO RESTRICT TAKEOFFS WITH LESS THAN 1/4 TANK OF FUEL DUE TO POSSIBLE FUEL STARVATION INDUCED BY ATTITUDE.
Probable cause
FUEL STARVATION DUE TO THE PILOT'S IMPROPER DECISION TO TAKE OFF WITH A LOW FUEL LEVEL. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE THE LOW FUEL LEVEL, THE PILOT'S LACK OF FAMILIARITY WITH THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FUEL SYSTEM, AND THE UNEVEN TERRAIN IN THE EMERGENCY LANDING AREA.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO93LA117
- Event ID
- 20001211X12799
- Case number
- BFO93LA117
- 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: 870895d1490cb41e6762b450fd6cefb1151f0d69a925af738c5d03bc595ac8e6; retrieved 2026-09-21T14:17:46.050Z.