SEA02LA069 · Woodley Zodiac 601HD
Woodley Zodiac 601HD · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Independence State Airport (7S5) to S47 · Tillamook, OR
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA02LA069
- 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
Woodley Zodiac 601HD
- Aircraft type
- Woodley ZODIAC 601
- 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
- N9240W
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Independence State Airport (7S5), Independence, ORTo S47 · Tillamook, OR
- 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
- 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
- Electrical system › Failure, partial
- Electrical system, electric switch › Shorted
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that while in cruise flight, the engine sounded different like it dropped a few rpm's. The pilot applied carburetor heat which didn't help. The pilot then checked one side of the dual ignition system and found that one side was inoperative. The engine continued to run for a few more minutes, then quit. The pilot tried to restart the engine by cranking the starter, applying boost pump, primer and the emergency 12-volt ignition system. The engine would not start and the pilot set-up for a landing on a highway. During the landing roll, the airplane collided with an embankment. During the post-accident engine run and inspection, it was noted that the engine had been modified since it left the manufacturer. Further inspection of the engine identified that ignition A (right side) revealed an open circuit with a defective sensor. It was also found that the alternate 12 VDC source switch in the on position shorted the master. The engine would not start if the alternate 12-VDC switch was in the on position.
Probable cause
A partial failure of the electrical (ignition) system and a short to the master electrical switch during cruise flight resulting in a loss of engine power. A collision with an embankment during the landing roll was a factor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA02LA069
- Event ID
- 20020426X00579
- Case number
- SEA02LA069
- 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: 202764ea972bf92d58b981e3b58e970dc60be11a20bbaf908e96f1df243dd956; retrieved 2026-09-22T11:00:08.198Z.