CHI01LA203 · Bellanca 14-13-3
Bellanca 14-13-3 · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Creighton Municipal Airport (6K3) to Karl Stefan Memorial Airport (OFK)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI01LA203
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
Bellanca 14-13-3
- Aircraft type
- Bellanca 14
- 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
- N29C
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Creighton Municipal Airport (6K3), Creighton, NETo Karl Stefan Memorial Airport (OFK), Norfolk, NE
- 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
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Fuel management, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane impacted a berm during a forced landing following a loss of engine power while in cruise flight. In his written statement the pilot said, "Departed from Clark [South Dakota] about 10 am on 6-25-01 with strong headwinds. About 30 min into flight fuel pressure became erratic. Using wobble pump to assist in maintaining fuel pressure landed at nearest airport. Found kinked aluminum fuel line from gascolator to fuel pump. Replaced with MILH6000 hose checked operation OK. Took off switched tanks and resume course for home. After 1 hour switched fuel tanks again and engine guit after 15 minutes of operation. Reselected prior tank and engine restarted. Landed at nearest airport Creighton (6K3). Verify left tank empty right tank 2/3 full. Discovered fuel selector placard installed incorrectly. Took off again heading to Stefan Memorial [Airport] (OFK) Norfolk, NE. 15 min later lost fuel pressure and engine quit tried to use wobble pump but was not working. Attempted to land on highway but could not make it. Landed in pasture avoiding telephone wires impacted a [berm] which bounced the aircraft up on to its nose resulting in the landing gear drag braces failing. Time now approx 3 o'clock pm." In his report, the pilot stated that there was 15 gallons of fuel on board at the last takeoff and the fuel type was automotive. The aircraft was not approved for the use of automibile fuel. An examination of the airplane failed to reveal any anomalies that could be associated with a pre-impact condition. The fuel selector was examined and was found to be working correctly and the fuel selector placard was installed correctly.
Probable cause
The improper management of the fuel system by the pilot. Factors were the fuel starvation, the pilot's lack of familiarity with the airplane, the berm, and the unsuitable terrain for landing encountered by the pilot.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI01LA203
- Event ID
- 20010713X01414
- Case number
- CHI01LA203
- 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: 8bbc788b62748280d8ba7766baec63dc33303926c6011be53e0135baee2ff7f8; retrieved 2026-09-22T11:50:30.920Z.