SEA86FA239 · Ercoupe (Eng & Research Corp.) 415-C
Ercoupe (Eng & Research Corp.) 415-C · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA86FA239
- 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
Ercoupe (Eng & Research Corp.) 415-C
- Aircraft type
- Ercoupe (eng Research 415
- 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
- N99313
- Operator
- Unknown
- 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
- En route · climb to 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Electrical system, ammeter › Shorted
- Pilot in command › Maintenance, replacement, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT REPORTED HE WAS CLIMBING AFTER A TOUCH AND GO, DURING THE CLIMB THE 'BLOWN FUSE' LIGHT CAME ON FOR THE GENERATOR. AFTER REPLACING THE FUSE SPARKS STARTED COMING FROM BEHIND THE INSTRUMENT PANEL. SMOKE FILLED THE COCKPIT AS THE PLT TRIED TO SMOTHER THE FLAMES. A 180 DEGREE TURN WAS INITIATED FOR A RETURN TO AUBURN. A SUCCESSFUL EMERGENCY LANDING WAS MADE. THE PLT EXITED THE ACFT AND RAN TO A TELEPHONE TO CALL THE FIRE DEPARTMENT WHO GOT THERE IN ABOUT 15 MINUTES. SUBSEQUENT INVESTIGATION DISCLOSED THE FIRE STARTED NEAR THE AMMETER FUSE CASE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA86FA239
- Event ID
- 20001213X34874
- Case number
- SEA86FA239
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1986-09-05.
- API snapshot SHA-256: b4b1f1559d6a5bc14bde36a3f60c6a5548e565d32a46a9afc7cd84e2568f316b; retrieved 2026-09-23T14:02:11.674Z.