SEA92LA138 · Navion H
Navion H · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Helena Regional Airport (HLN)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA92LA138
- 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
Navion H
- Aircraft type
- Navion H
- 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
- N2550T
- Operator
- Eckert, Edwin J. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Helena Regional Airport (HLN), Helena, MT
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Total 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Faa(principal maintenance inspector) › Acft/equip, inadequate compliance determination
- Induction air ducting › Collapsed
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, modification, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
IMMEDIATELY AFTER TAKEOFF, AT ABOUT 100 FT AGL, THERE WAS AN ABRUPT LOSS OF POWER. THE PILOT LOWERED THE LANDING GEAR & EXECUTED A FORCED LANDING STRAIGHT AHEAD. THE GEAR DID NOT FULLY EXTEND, AND RETRACTED AT TOUCHDOWN. POST CRASH EXAMINATION REVEALED THAT THE INDUCTION AIR 'SCAT' TUBE INNER WALL HAD COLLAPSED AT A 90 DEG BEND, RESTRICTING INTAKE AIR TO THE ENGINE. THE TUBING WAS INSTALLED AS PER A ONE TIME FIELD APPROVED STC. THE ALTERNATE AIR BYPASS WAS DOWNSTREAM OF THE 'SCAT' TUBING. THE TUBING WAS OF A DOUBLE WALL DESIGN WHICH CHARACTERISTICALLY CAN DELAMINATE WHEN EXPOSED TO HIGH HEAT.
Probable cause
AN ENGINE POWER LOSS DUE TO THE COLLAPSE OF THE INDUCTION AIR DUCTING, INADEQUATE MAINTENANCE, AND IMPROPER APPROVAL OF THE MODIFICATION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA92LA138
- Event ID
- 20001211X15013
- Case number
- SEA92LA138
- 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: 3d9cd326bc2ca9a8a1728d333b07ad3a226070749e0f74cf9ee77bef801505d4; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:14:11.959Z.