LAX06LA153 · Ronald R Russell RV-6
Ronald R Russell RV-6 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From Furnace Creek Airport (L06) to Blythe Airport (BLH)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX06LA153
- 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
- 1 · 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
Ronald R Russell RV-6
- Aircraft type
- Ronald R Russell RV-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
- N655VT
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Furnace Creek Airport (L06), DEATH VALLEY NA, CATo Blythe Airport (BLH), Blythe, CA
- 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 (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Fuel system, pump › Failure, total
- Fuel system, pump › Vapor lock
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane lost engine power during the takeoff initial climb, and nosed over during the ensuing forced landing. The accident pilot radioed that he was having fuel problems and attempted to land just south of the airport. The airplane touched down in soft sand and nosed over. The recovery crew that retrieved the wreckage reported that both fuel tanks contained a substantial amount of fuel. An inspection of the airplane was performed. Trace amounts of fuel were found in the fuel system between the electric fuel pump and the fuel distributor. No fuel was found in the fuel distributor. The electric fuel pump was inoperative when tested. An operative electrical fuel pump and fuel source was connected to the airplane and the engine was started with no difficulties, but because of the damaged propeller, the engine was not run at full power. A magneto check was performed and found to be within the normal range. The right wing fuel tank had an inverted fuel pick-up and the left wing fuel tank had a standard pick-up. Both pick-ups were clean with no debris and free of blockage. The airplane was equipped with an Airflow Performance electric fuel pump, in addition to the engine driven fuel pump. According to the manufacturer of the electric fuel pump, an optional fuel purge system kit that would allow the pilot to purge hot fuel from the fuel lines with cooler fuel to help prevent vapor lock was available. The accident airplane was not equipped with the fuel purge system. The accident airplane's fuel system was installed so if the electric fuel pump became inoperative and the pump was not blocked, the engine driven fuel pump would be able to draw fuel out of the fuel tanks. A representative of the fuel pump manufacturer stated that the fuel pump could run dry for about 1 to 2 minutes before it would fail due to lack of lubrication.
Probable cause
a fuel starvation induced loss of engine power due to a likely vapor lock condition in the fuel lines.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX06LA153
- Event ID
- 20060510X00541
- Case number
- LAX06LA153
- 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: bd4427f967b8e03935e611f219c8f4fc56221f9df2b6489b85417915404f83be; retrieved 2026-09-20T17:22:16.666Z.