NYC91LA220 · Douglas DC-3
Douglas DC-3 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From Stoltzfus Airfield (OH22) to Stoltzfus Airfield (OH22)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC91LA220
- 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
Douglas DC-3
- Aircraft type
- Douglas DC-3
- 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
- N13JA
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Stoltzfus Airfield (OH22)To Stoltzfus Airfield (OH22)
- 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 (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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Fuel tank selector position, improper
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
JUST AFTER THE ACFT BECAME AIRBORNE FOR A LOCAL SIGHTSEEING FLT, ITS LEFT ENG LOST PWR. THE ACFT YAWED TO THE LEFT & THE LEFT PROP WAS FEATHERED. THE ACFT'S FLT PATH ANGLED TO THE LEFT OF THE RWY & CROSSED OVER TREES TO THE LEFT OF THE DEP END OF THE RWY. DUE TO A LOSS OF SPEED, THE CAPT REALIZED THE ACFT WOULD NOT CLR A 2ND ROW OF TREES, SO HE REDUCED PWR IN THE RGT ENG & MADE A WHEELS UP LNDG IN A CORN FLD. DRG THE LNDG, THE ACFT WAS DMGD. THE LEFT ENG WAS CHECKED AFTER THE ACDNT & IT PRODUCED TAKEOFF PWR. PERFORMANCE CHARTS SHOWED THAT A TAKEOFF DISTANCE OF 3551' WOULD HAVE BEEN REQUIRED TO CLEAR A 50' OBSTACLE. THIS DISTANCE WAS PREDICATED ON A HARD SURFACE; NO CORRECTION FACTOR WAS SUPPLIED FOR A TURF RWY. THE GRASS RWY WAS 3600' LONG. RPRTDLY, THE TAKEOFF WAS STARTED WITH 3500' OF RUNWAY REMAINING. THE PLTS WERE USING THE REAR TANKS FOR TAKEOFF. ACCORDING TO THE FLT MANUAL, TAKEOFFS & CLIMBS SHOULD HAVE BEEN MADE USING THE LEFT & RGT FRONT CENTER WING TANKS, RESPECTIVELY. THE FRONT TANKS HAD ONLY ABOUT 5 GAL OF FUEL REMAINING.
Probable cause
IMPROPER PLANNING/DECISION BY THE PILOT(S), AND IMPROPER USE OF THE FUEL SYSTEM/FUEL SELECTOR. THE LOCATION OF TREES WAS A RELATED FACTOR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC91LA220
- Event ID
- 20001212X17965
- Case number
- NYC91LA220
- 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: 31a1f56213424319752029c92ee83b489e0ddc80c295f5a271cb5249ca611a32; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:28:05.025Z.