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SEA05LA176 · Alon A-2A

20 Aug 2005 · Helena, MT, United States

Alon A-2A · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb

From Helena Regional Airport (HLN) to Helena Regional Airport (HLN)

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Event

NTSB case
SEA05LA176
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

Alon A-2A

Aircraft type
Alon A-2
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
N5467F
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Helena Regional Airport (HLN), Helena, MTTo Helena Regional Airport (HLN), Helena, MT
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

After taking off on Runway 27 (9,000 feet X 150 feet) and climbing to an altitude of between 100 and 150 feet above ground level, the engine began to run rough. The pilot applied carburetor heat, which resulted in a further loss of engine rpm, prompting the pilot to make a left turn for a landing on Runway 9. The airplane touched down on the pavement near the departure end of Runway 27, bounced once and contacted the pavement a second time. The airplane then rolled about 10 to 15 feet before exiting the runway surface and impacting a grassy dirt surface, which resulted in the nose gear collapsing and the airplane nosing over, coming to rest in an inverted position. Examination of the airframe and engine revealed no anomalies that would have prevented normal operation.

Probable cause

The loss of engine power for undetermined reasons, which resulted in a forced landing and nose over. A factor contributing to the accident was the ground bordering the runway pavement.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record SEA05LA176
Event ID
20050824X01305
Case number
SEA05LA176
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: 26fd204068df85fed2b926e13e945a5cfffa381a9ce5eace398a1998ce974c74; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:55:28.297Z.