BFO93LA162 · Sterner SUPER CAT
Sterner SUPER CAT · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during takeoff
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO93LA162
- 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
Sterner SUPER CAT
- Aircraft type
- Sterner SUPER CAT
- 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
- N531SC
- Operator
- Kerry John Sterner
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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
- 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)
- 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
- Fuel system, filter › Blocked(partial)
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING TAKE-OFF CLIMB, AT ABOUT 150 FEET ABOVE THE GROUND, THE AIRPLANE'S ENGINE LOST PARTIAL POWER. THE AIRPLANE DID NOT HAVE ENOUGH AIRSPEED OR ALTITUDE TO LAND AT THE DEPARTED AIR FIELD, AND THERE WAS NOT ENOUGH POWER TO SUSTAIN FLIGHT. DURING THE DESCENT, THE AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH TREES. POST ACCIDENT EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE REVEALED THAT AN EXTERNALLY MOUNTED IN-LINE FUEL FILTER, MANUFACTURED BY PUROLATOR, PART NUMBER PRO-804, WAS RESTRICTING FUEL FLOW. FURTHER EXAMINATION OF THE FUEL FILTER REVEALED THAT THE FUEL FILTER'S ELEMENT RETENTION THUMBSCREW HAD LOOSENED AND ROTATED DOWN COVERING ABOUT 80 PERCENT OF THE FUEL INLET OPENINGS.
Probable cause
THE MOVEMENT OF A THUMBSCREW ON THE FUEL FILTER SYSTEM WHICH RESULTED IN FUEL FLOW BLOCKAGE AND SUBSEQUENT PARTIAL POWER LOSS. A FACTOR IN THIS ACCIDENT WAS THE LACK OF SUITABLE TERRAIN FOR THE EMERGENCY LANDING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO93LA162
- Event ID
- 20001211X13338
- Case number
- BFO93LA162
- 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: 9a5ba010e28a6a2210598207c0f301b8526994ebd12155a87214cc2fe97ad4ed; retrieved 2026-09-23T01:39:22.540Z.