CHI05LA018 · Kramer Glasair III
Kramer Glasair III · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From Schaumburg Regional Airport (06C) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI05LA018
- 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
Kramer Glasair III
- Aircraft type
- Kramer GLASAIR
- 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
- N6158N
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Schaumburg Regional Airport (06C), Schaumburg, ILTo 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
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The experimental airplane was substantially damaged when it impacted a fence during a gear-up forced landing following a loss of engine power. The pilot reported that he had completed one takeoff and landing prior to the accident. He noted that after the second takeoff, as he began to turn crosswind, the engine began "detonating and misfiring." The engine lost power completely and he "banked sharply" to set up for a forced landing. The pilot stated that he elected to land gear-up. The airplane touched down over halfway down the runway, skidded down the remaining pavement, onto the grass and came to rest against a fence. After the accident the fuel selector was observed in the "AUX" position by an individual from the fixed base operator. This individual reported that the auxiliary fuel tank was not compromised and did not appear to contain any fuel. The pilot reported that the aircraft fuel system consisted of a main tank and an auxiliary tank. He explained that the main and auxiliary sections of the system were separate. The pilot stated that he did not recall the position of the fuel selector prior to takeoff or at the time of the loss of power. A post-accident examination was conducted. Engine control continuity was confirmed. No anomalies related to the engine were observed. No fuel was observed at the distributor valve inlet or the throttle body inlet when the fuel lines were disconnected. In addition, no fuel was observed in the filter chamber in the throttle body. The gascolator was disassembled. A small amount of fuel, estimated as a few drops, was present. No fuel was observed in the auxiliary fuel tank.
Probable cause
Fuel starvation for undetermined reasons during initial climb after takeoff. Contributing factors were the fence and fence post impacted during the forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI05LA018
- Event ID
- 20041102X01740
- Case number
- CHI05LA018
- 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: 8e5d5e3eeaeb8a0046d502f379abb6f6065b295adb1a9ac27c9254d5736f1c41; retrieved 2026-09-22T06:34:34.174Z.