IAD05LA144 · Howard Whyte Nieuport 28
Howard Whyte Nieuport 28 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (FFO) to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (FFO)
Event
- NTSB case
- IAD05LA144
- 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
Howard Whyte Nieuport 28
- Aircraft type
- Howard Whyte NIEUPORT 28
- 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
- N62610
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (FFO), Dayton, OHTo Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (FFO)
- 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 (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Ignition system, magneto grounding lead (p-lead) › Incorrect
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During takeoff, a white "puff" of smoke was observed to exit the exhaust stack, and the engine lost power. The propeller began to "windmill," and the pilot observed the tachometer, which was driven by the right magneto's P-lead, "go to zero." The pilot attempted to restart the engine without result and performed a forced landing. During the landing, the airplane nosed over and was substantially damaged. Examination of the engine's ignition system revealed that the ends of the wire leads that went into the magneto cases were equipped with spring type spark plug terminal contacts, instead of solid phenolic or ceramic insulated eyelets or P-lead fittings. No insulation in the access holes for the contactors was present. No means to keep the spring type terminal contacts from migrating under vibration was installed, and there was no mechanism to prevent contact with the magneto cases. The engine was delivered originally without P-lead fittings. In their place were two brass knurled nuts. After the pilot advised the engine manufacturer's sales distributor of the discrepancy, the sales distributor then mistakenly shipped the spring type spark plug terminal contacts to the pilot.
Probable cause
A loss of engine power due to the installation of incorrect spring type terminal contacts which were accidentally supplied by the engine distributor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record IAD05LA144
- Event ID
- 20051017X01657
- Case number
- IAD05LA144
- 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: 4c3d79e2b73746f45129a04f97162561c3475a9d348e00f71de3bd943283e1f8; retrieved 2026-09-21T09:02:49.987Z.