NYC99FA150 · Canadair F-86E
Canadair F-86E · Accident: loss of engine power while maneuvering
From VAY to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC99FA150
- 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
- 1 · 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
Canadair F-86E
- Aircraft type
- Canadair F-86
- 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
- N186JC
- Operator
- Stephen Snyder
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From VAYTo 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Fuel system, transfer pump › Inoperative
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Mount Holly, NJ, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
The pilot performed several passes before attempting a low and slow pass. As the airplane slowed it started to sink. The airplane's pitch attitude increased, and power was applied, followed by a muffled bang. The airplane then rolled right, and impacted the ground in a nose low attitude. The aft fuselage pump, and fuel level transmitter were not examined due to location in the wreckage, and impact damage. Examination of the rest of the airplane revealed no preimpact failures or malfunctions. The pilot had approximately 50 hours in the accident airplane's make and model. The airplane had approximately 1,360 pounds of fuel onboard at engine start. The pilot requested 340 pounds of fuel, but then changed his mind. The airplane burned between 83.3 and 100 pounds of fuel per minute while performing at airshows. According to the Aircraft Operating Instructions, the possibility of fuel starvation existed when there was a failure of the aft fuselage pump or fuel level transmitter, and the airplane was in a climb attitude with less than 500 pounds of fuel. The pilot would not have any cockpit indications of a failure of the aft fuselage pump or the fuel level transmitter.
Probable cause
A failure in the fuel transfer system which resulted in fuel starvation and subsequent loss of engine power.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC99FA150
- Event ID
- 20001212X19084
- Case number
- NYC99FA150
- 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: dbfd4b878202fb5454b340cc28d50030db0b375013ce654835d957ed745b56e1; retrieved 2026-09-20T22:03:08.289Z.