CHI92LA204 · Bellanca 17-30A
Loft Air Bellanca 17-30A · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Roscommon County - Blodgett Memorial Airport (HTL) to Oakland County International Airport (PTK)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI92LA204
- 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
Bellanca 17-30A
- Aircraft type
- Bellanca 17
- 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
- N6617V
- Operator
- Loft Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Roscommon County - Blodgett Memorial Airport (HTL), Houghton Lake, MITo Oakland County International Airport (PTK), Pontiac, MI
- 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 · 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
- Total 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; 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
- Pilot in command › Emergency procedure, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Fuel tank selector position, improper use of
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT OF THE ACCIDENT AIRPLANE HAD JUST CANCELED AN IFR CLEARANCE AND WAS DESCENDING IN VFR CONDITIONS WHEN HE LOST ENGINE POWER AT APPROXIMATELY 1200 FEET AGL. HE DECLARED AN EMERGENCY TO ATC AND UNSUCCESSFULLY TRIED TO RESTART THE ENGINE. HE GAVE UP THE RESTART ATTEMPTS AND REMEMBERS THINKING; 'I'VE GOT TO STOP PLAYING WITH IT AND LAND THIS THING.' HE REMEMBERS TURNING THE MAIN FUEL SWITCH OFF JUST BEFORE THE AIRPLANE STRUCK THE TREETOPS. AN AFTER ACCIDENT EXAMINATION OF THE WRECKAGE DISCLOSED NO MECHANICAL DEFECTS IN THE AIRFRAME. NO MECHANICAL DEFECTS WERE NOTED IN THE ENGINE THAT WOULD HAVE CAUSED AN INFLIGHT STOPPAGE. EXAMINATION OF THE FUEL SYSTEM SHOWED THE MAIN FUEL SWITCH OFF AND THE SECONDARY AUXILIARY FUEL TANK SELECTOR SWITCH SELECTED TO AN EMPTY AUXILIARY TANK. FUEL WAS PRESENT IN ALL OF THE MAIN FUEL TANKS AND THE OTHER AUXILIARY TANK.
Probable cause
IMPROPER USE OF THE FUEL TANK SELECTOR SWITCH AND INADEQUATE EMERGENCY PROCEDURES BY THE PILOT IN COMMAND.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI92LA204
- Event ID
- 20001211X15115
- Case number
- CHI92LA204
- 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: b58dc87e28d7bc1562ae40e7728507f2d66fe48a542b881b45fe5a1b396ba25f; retrieved 2026-09-21T14:51:57.453Z.