NYC03LA154 · Wohlers Falco F.8L
Wohlers Falco F.8L · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From Ashland County Airport (3G4) to Chautauqua County-Jamestown Airport (JHW)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC03LA154
- 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
Wohlers Falco F.8L
- Aircraft type
- Wohlers FALCO F 8L
- 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
- N33LW
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ashland County Airport (3G4), Ashland, OHTo Chautauqua County-Jamestown Airport (JHW), Jamestown, NY
- 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
- Total loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Induction air ducting › Failure
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
As the airplane was climbing, about 100 feet above the ground, the engine suddenly lost all power. The pilot performed a forced landing to a grass field with the landing gear retracted. Upon touchdown, the airplane slid to a stop and came to rest upright. Examination of the wreckage revealed that the engine air intake duct tubing had lost its internal support spring structure strength, allowing the tube casing to be sucked inward, which restricted the air intake. The most recent annual inspection performed on the airplane was completed on May 10, 2003. According to 14 CFR Part 43 Appendix D - Scope and Detail of Items (as Applicable to the Particular Aircraft) To Be Included in Annual and 100 Hour Inspections, "Each person performing an annual or 100 hour inspection shall inspect (where applicable) components of the engine and nacelle group..."
(This narrative was modified on January 26, 2005.)
Probable cause
A loss of engine power due to the failure of the engine air intake duct tubing, which resulted in a total blockage of the induction inlet duct. A factor related to the accident was the inadequate 100-hour inspection by maintenance personnel.
(This narrative was modified on January 26, 2005.)
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC03LA154
- Event ID
- 20030716X01119
- Case number
- NYC03LA154
- 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: 5d6e7e166ab191de23b13608fcaacb4b77dc83d97b0fdbafbbd2fcd00fe3c798; retrieved 2026-09-21T09:25:31.304Z.