SEA05LA087 · Ercoupe (Eng & Research Corp.) 415-C
Ercoupe (Eng & Research Corp.) 415-C · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From Roseburg, OR to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA05LA087
- 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
Ercoupe (Eng & Research Corp.) 415-C
- Aircraft type
- Ercoupe (eng Research 415
- 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
- N2256H
- Operator
- Clyde E. Lloyd · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Roseburg, 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
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-rated passenger (aircraft owner) reported that he did not hold a current medical certificate, therefore the private pilot in the right seat who was current was acting as pilot-in-command, however, the aircraft owner was at the controls at the time of the takeoff. The pilot/owner reported that the pre-flight check and start-up were normal. A magneto check with 1,800 rpm noted that the right magneto dropped about 75 rpm and the left magneto dropped about 100 rpm, which he reported as normal. At the time of takeoff, the aircraft attained an altitude of about 100 feet above ground level, when the engine began to gradually lose power, "like someone pulled the throttle or the throttle linkage broke." The pilot/owner initiated a forced landing to a grape vineyard. During the landing roll, the aircraft experienced a nose gear collapse, the firewall was damaged as well as the leading edge of the wings. The engine was inspected then prepared for an engine run. The engine was found to start right up and a magneto check was accomplished finding that the left magneto produced a 300 rpm drop. The magnetos were then placed on a test bench. Both magnetos produced a spark from all towers up to 3,000 rpm. The ignition harness test found no anomalies. No evidence of a mechanical failure or malfunction was found with the engine.
Probable cause
Loss of engine power for undetermined reasons. High vegetation was a factor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA05LA087
- Event ID
- 20050427X00515
- Case number
- SEA05LA087
- 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: 6909f1f6b8d44421f0f739dabe8df3fd5aa2e287da534bebe75208adeabcfac6; retrieved 2026-09-22T06:02:14.362Z.