NYC89FA029 · Ryan NAVION A
Ryan NAVION A · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during takeoff
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC89FA029
- 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
- 3 · 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 NAVION A
- Aircraft type
- Ryan NAVION
- 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
- N5164K
- Operator
- Blaine K. Fennell · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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
- Takeoff · roll/run
- 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 (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Stall; 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Engine assembly, valve, exhaust › Bent
- Engine assembly, valve, exhaust › Binding(mechanical)
- Fluid, fuel grade › Improper
- Pilot in command › Aborted takeoff, not performed
- Pilot in command › Aircraft service, improper
- Pilot in command › Stall, not corrected
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WITNESSES REPORTED HEARING THE ENG SPUTTERING AND BACKFIRING DURING WHAT THEY REPORTED WAS A LONG, SLOW TAKEOFF GROUND RUN. THEY STATED THE ENG RPM SEEMED TO DECREASE AS THE ACFT PASSED THE TERMINAL BUILDING IN A SLOW SPEED, HIGH PITCH ATTIUDE. THE ACFT THEN DESCENDED BEHIND TREES. AUTO GAS WAS FOUND IN THE ACFT FUEL SYSTEM AND NO SUPPLEMENTAL TYPECERTIFICATE (STC) FOR AUTO GAS WAS FOUND FOR THE ACFT. POST ACCIDENT INSPECTION REVEALED THE #2 EXHAUST VALVE WAS VISIBLY WARPED. THE #3 EXHAUST VALVE GUIDE WAS BROKEN AND MOVED WITH THE STEM AS IT WAS REMOVED FROM THE CYLINDER. THE #4 EXHAUST VALVE WAS ALSO TIGHT IN THE GUIDE. COMPRESSION WAS CHECKED AND THE #2 CYLINDER COMPRESSION WAS ZERO.
Probable cause
DUE TO IMPROPER GRADE OF FUEL IN THE AIRPLANE AND BENT AND BINDING EXHAUST VALVES, THE AIRPLANE ENGINE HAD A PARTIAL LOSS OF POWER DURING THE TAKEOFF GROUND RUN. THE PILOT DID NOT ABORT THE TAKEOFF AND THE AIRPLANE STALLED AND COLLIDED WITH TREES WHEN THE PILOT FAILED TO MAINTAIN FLYING AIRSPEED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC89FA029
- Event ID
- 20001213X27332
- Case number
- NYC89FA029
- 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: 1b7a2a4338673ddbf7a78d5f6e900bfd4e740d397b2e1a3e8058a4101a19a2af; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:29:19.331Z.