SEA05LA192 · North American AT-6D
North American AT-6D · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From Chehalis Centralia Airport (CLS) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA05LA192
- 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
North American AT-6D
- Aircraft type
- North American AT-6
- 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
- N3617F
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Chehalis Centralia Airport (CLS), Chehalis, WATo 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
- Pilot in command › Checklist, not followed
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 he had been conducting revenue sightseeing and instructional flights throughout the day. This was the 11th ride of the day for the purpose of sightseeing. The pilot stated that during the pre-takeoff check, he recorded on the manifest that he switched the fuel selector to the fullest fuel tank, but failed to physically perform the action of switching the fuel selector. During the takeoff initial climb at about 100 feet above ground level, the engine began to lose power. The landing gear was already retracted and the pilot called for his passenger to extend the landing gear. The pilot switched the fuel selector to the fullest fuel tank and pumped the manual fuel pump. At the same time as the aircraft landed hard on the remaining runway, the engine regained power and the pilot continued the takeoff. The landing gear was left in the extended position and was soon determined that the right main landing gear torque link was damaged and the wheel was 90 degrees to the direction of flight. After discussing the situation with the ground crew, the pilot elected to land the aircraft with the landing gear retracted. During the gear-up landing, the aircraft slid off the runway surface into a muddy area, colliding with a runway taxi light and raised manhole cover.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to follow the checklist to switch to the fullest fuel tank prior to departure which resulted in fuel starvation and a loss of engine power during the initial takeoff climb. Subsequently, the aircraft landed hard damaging the landing gear which resulted in an intentional wheels up landing. A runway taxiway sign was a factor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA05LA192
- Event ID
- 20050914X01455
- Case number
- SEA05LA192
- 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 2005-09-09.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 6866dec4994a1588e3578b9502fa9898467d3b3143fa560c5a904b2ef76dbe16; retrieved 2026-09-22T05:23:17.049Z.