SEA02LA072 · Gallagher Taylor "Coot"
Gallagher Taylor "Coot" · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From Hobby Field (77S) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA02LA072
- 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
- 1 · 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
Gallagher Taylor "Coot"
- Aircraft type
- Gallagher TAYLOR COOT
- 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
- N41RG
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hobby Field (77S), Creswell, ORTo 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
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Fluid, oil › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During the maiden flight of the experimental aircraft, shortly after takeoff, the engine began to run rough and subsequently quit. Witnesses observed the nose of the airplane drop and shortly thereafter, the airplane collided with the terrain in an open flat field located about one mile from the airport. Post-crash inspection of the airframe revealed no malfunctions in the aircraft's airframe or flight controls. In discussions with people at the airport, the pilot reported that he was having trouble getting the right fuel/oil mixture for the Mazda rotary engine. Each time the engine was run, the spark plugs would foul. Examination of the engine revealed that the engine was seized, with both rotors, an oil pump, and the rotor bearing surfaces exhibiting galling and burn damage consistent with oil starvation. The metering oil pump, which supplies oil to the combustion chambers, was missing from the engine installation, with its drive absent. Further examination disclosed that the oil injection nozzles associated with the missing metering oil pump were also missing from the combustion chambers, and that the nozzle holes were plugged with a non-metallic substance.
Probable cause
A loss of engine power due to oil starvation followed by the pilot's failure to maintain aircraft control during the initial climb shortly after takeoff. An improper engine modification was a factor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA02LA072
- Event ID
- 20020504X00620
- Case number
- SEA02LA072
- 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, coordinates. 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: 68b875781583f9c69185f3bb50e7cd4f6fe0d03fabe4f484114c678d89c16786; retrieved 2026-09-20T20:02:40.601Z.