LAX05LA134 · Newell Thomas RV6-A
Newell Thomas RV6-A · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From Hayward Executive Airport (HWD) to Livermore Municipal Airport (LVK)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX05LA134
- 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
Newell Thomas RV6-A
- Aircraft type
- Newell Thomas RV6
- 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
- N16TN
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hayward Executive Airport (HWD), Hayward, CATo Livermore Municipal Airport (LVK), Livermore, CA
- 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 (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Fuel system › Contamination, other than water
- Fuel system, filter › Flow restricted
- Fuel system, filter › Foreign material/substance
- Fuel system, line › Blocked(partial)
- Owner/builder › Maintenance, major repair, 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 airplane collided with an unoccupied truck short of the runway, following a total loss of engine power. Shortly after departure, and during the initial climb, the engine experienced a total loss of power. The pilot was unable to make it to the runway surface and the airplane collided with a truck located in a city maintenance yard. The airplane had undergone repairs from a previous accident 9 months prior to this accident. The airplane had flown a total of 1.6 hours since being returned to service. The repairs included the airplane being outfitted with new aluminum fuel tanks (supplied by the pilot), as the previous tanks had been damaged. There was no evidence that the mechanic who installed the fuel tanks or the pilot ever flushed the fuel system. At the accident site the glass fuel filters were removed from the airplane for examination and dark debris lining both filters was observed. Examination of the right fuel filter disclosed that fuel would not flow from the outlet side, but was able to flow from the inlet side, due to debris contamination. The fuel filters were automobile specific and visible to the pilot from the cockpit. Trace amounts of fuel were found throughout various points in the fuel system, including the fuel pumps and carburetor bowl. An examination of the carburetor's brass float found scrape marks, or chaffing on each side. The fuel lines were contaminated with a foreign particulate matter and flow tests using air found that the contaminants hindered air flow through the lines. The fuel filters were sent to the Safety Board Material Laboratory for analysis of the contaminants. An energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) was used to identify the material inside the filters as corroded iron or steel particles and dirt. Several larger pieces of a white material were identified as either plastic or paint. The quantity and size of the debris could have significantly impeded the flow of fuel through the filter.
Probable cause
A loss of engine power due to fuel system contamination. A factor in the accident was the fuel system not being flushed out after it was involved in a previous accident where the fuel tanks were damaged.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX05LA134
- Event ID
- 20050415X00465
- Case number
- LAX05LA134
- 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: de709459d835a8ed1730f3a3e4491d1ee2c773dfe49bb8f43d3cb007fcbbac56; retrieved 2026-09-21T19:02:54.639Z.