NYC92LA034 · Ryan 260-B
Ryan 260-B · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Limington Harmon Airport (63B) to Waterbury Oxford Airport (OXC)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC92LA034
- 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
Ryan 260-B
- Aircraft type
- Ryan 260
- 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
- N5321K
- Operator
- John J. Horbal · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Limington Harmon Airport (63B), Limington, METo Waterbury Oxford Airport (OXC), Oxford, CT
- 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
- 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
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Barre, MA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT EXPERIENCED A POWER LOSS DUE TO FUEL STARVATION WHILE EN ROUTE. HIS ALTITUDE WAS INSUFFICIENT TO ALLOW HIM TO RESTART THE ENGINE OR PICK A LANDING AREA INTO THE WIND. THE LANDING GEAR COLLAPSED WHILE LANDING WITH A STRONG CROSSWIND. POST ACCIDENT EXAMINATION BY THE FAA SHOWED THE FUSELAGE TANK EMPTY AND USABLE FUEL IN BOTH WING TANKS. THE SPARK PLUGS INDICATED EXPOSURE TO HEAT AND A LEAN MIXTURE. THE FUEL SELECTOR VALVE WAS FOUND TO HAVE AN EXTERNAL LEAK. THE PILOT DID NOT REMEMBER WHAT TANK HE WAS SELECTED WHEN THE POWER LOSS OCCURRED. THE FAA STATED THAT BASED ON THE LEAKY VALVE, THE CAPACITY OF THE FUSELAGE TANK, AND THE LENGTH OF THE FLIGHT IT WAS POSSIBLE THE PILOT WAS SELECTED TO THE FUSELAGE TANK AND EXPERIENCED FUEL STARVATION.
Probable cause
A TOTAL LOSS OF ENGINE POWER IN CRUISE FLIGHT DUE TO FUEL STARVATION RESULTING IN A FORCED LANDING AND COLLAPSE OF THE LANDING GEAR DURING THE LANDING ROLL. A FACTOR RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WAS A LEAKING FUEL SELECTOR VALVE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC92LA034
- Event ID
- 20001212X18517
- Case number
- NYC92LA034
- 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: 787a9ec06fa7049afffdcf4bee6b3e99954d394aceec8574021d57ecd7816961; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:23:20.266Z.