IAD00LA005 · Ankenbruck SEA HAWK
Ankenbruck SEA HAWK · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From Somerset County Airport (2G9) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- IAD00LA005
- 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
Ankenbruck SEA HAWK
- Aircraft type
- Ankenbruck SEA HAWK
- 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
- N101WR
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Somerset County Airport (2G9), PATo 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
- 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
- Partial 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 contamination
- 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 › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot performed several high speed taxi runs to 'test the brakes', without the use of flaps. He then lowered the flaps, taxied 1/3 the distance down the runway, and power was added. As the airplane 'lifted slightly off the runway,' about 8-10 feet off the ground, the 'engine quit' and the airplane 'pitched over to the left.' The engine then regained power, and the pilot attempted to land the airplane. During the landing, the airplane made numerous contacts with the ground over a distance of 75 feet. The pilot stated he had no intention of flight on the day of the accident and when the airplane impacted the ground, 'it wasn't really flying.' Particles of the fuel tank lining were found in the fuel when it was drained from the main tank, after the accident. Fuel drained from the auxiliary tank resembled 'pond scum' and contained an odor of an aviation fuel and automobile gasoline mixture. Prior to the accident, the airplane had not been flown in five years.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper preflight which resulted in a loss of power due to contaminated fuel, and the pilot's failure to maintain aircraft control after the loss of power. A factor in the accident was fuel contamination.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record IAD00LA005
- Event ID
- 20001212X20111
- Case number
- IAD00LA005
- 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: 3bc12bd97b784fbb5f82e05e0951381a8ef56d08c4e1945dcd5475e3f3f6e839; retrieved 2026-09-22T13:41:54.828Z.