SEA05LA118 · Rash Vans RV-6A
Rash Vans RV-6A · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From Palouse, WA to Lewiston Nez Perce County Airport (LWS)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA05LA118
- 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
Rash Vans RV-6A
- Aircraft type
- Rash VANS RV-6A
- 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
- N330CJ
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Palouse, WATo Lewiston Nez Perce County Airport (LWS), Lewiston, ID
- 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
- Destroyed
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 reported that everything was normal for the start and taxi. During the takeoff roll from runway 22, the aircraft accelerated, however, when the aircraft rotated and lifted off, the engine lost partial power. The pilot continued to fly the aircraft, however, it would not climb or accelerate and was on the edge of a stall. The aircraft traveled toward rising terrain, eventually colliding with the ground about one mile from the airstrip. A post-crash fire consumed the wreckage. The Subaru EJ 2500, 210 hp engine was severely heat distressed during the post-crash fire. The engine was subsequently inspected and torn down. During the inspection, the propeller hub was disassembled and impact marks were noted. It was determined that the propeller appeared to be in high pitch at impact. The composite propeller blades were broken off. It was also noted that the hub electric motor was impact damaged and would not turn. Disassembly found one brush damaged. At the end of the inspection, there was no conclusive evidence to determine the cause of the loss of engine power.
Probable cause
Loss of engine power for undetermined reasons. Rising terrain was a factor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA05LA118
- Event ID
- 20050621X00829
- Case number
- SEA05LA118
- 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: local date, investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2005-06-16.
- API snapshot SHA-256: ba0b20c33288e4754be5e8324989c2d05f82eeab7c47a6d706a48e0617a2217f; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:59:33.320Z.