SEA04LA157 · Headrick Vans RV9A
Headrick Vans RV9A · Accident: loss of engine power on approach
From Eugene Airport (EUG) to Westport Airport (14S)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA04LA157
- 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
Headrick Vans RV9A
- Aircraft type
- Headrick VANS RV9A
- 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
- N3086J
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Eugene Airport (EUG), Eugene, ORTo Westport Airport (14S), Westport, WA
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern downwind
- 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; Tree(s)
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Fuel management, improper
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that he departed from his departure point with about 28 gallons of fuel. About 30 miles out from landing at his destination, the pilot noted that the fuel gage for the right tank (tank selected) was indicating about 2.5 gallons of fuel. When the flight reached the airport, the pilot flew a low downwind to check out the sand bar north of the airport as he and his passenger were planning on fishing in that area. The pilot then turned back to the airport and set-up for a landing on runway 30. The pilot reported that while on downwind, the engine started running rough, the rpm decreased, and the engine subsequently quit. The pilot initiated a forced landing just short of the runway. During the descent, the aircraft collided with trees and the ground. The pilot further stated that carburetor icing conditions were present in the area, however, he had not been utilizing carburetor heat prior to the loss of power. Inspection of the wreckage found that the right fuel tank was empty of fuel, while the left fuel tank still contained 15 gallons. The pilot reported that he had been operating off of the right fuel tank at the time of the loss of power. Inspection of the engine noted that the primer lines, fuel outlet line from the fuel pump and the carburetor bowl were void of fuel.
Probable cause
Fuel starvation as a result of the pilot's improper fuel management. Carburetor icing conditions and trees were a factor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA04LA157
- Event ID
- 20040812X01206
- Case number
- SEA04LA157
- 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: b77b3565b598879624e279985c3aa1c146674587b3f5e35c3c0ac8774c32823f; retrieved 2026-09-21T09:14:20.783Z.