LAX06LA164 · Boeing Stearman E75
Boeing Stearman E75 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From Show Low Regional Airport (SOW) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX06LA164
- 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
Boeing Stearman E75
- Aircraft type
- Boeing Stearman E75
- 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
- N5263N
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Show Low Regional Airport (SOW), Show Low, AZTo 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
- Partial 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
- Climb › Not possible
- Induction air ducting › Collapsed
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 sustained damage during an off airport forced landing following a loss of engine power in the takeoff initial climb. The pilot reported that the engine start and run-up were normal, and he flew off at 65 mph. The airplane climbed to 300 to 400 feet, and he pulled the propeller back for noise abatement. He noticed that the airspeed was low, so he lowered the nose, checked the trim, throttle, mixture, and made sure that the magneto switch was on both. He pushed the propeller control full forward, but the airplane was still not climbing. He maintained altitude, airspeed, and heading. He wanted to make sure that he cleared power lines and buildings at the departure end of the runway. He hoped to gain enough airspeed and lift to reach alfalfa fields, or make a slow turn back to the airport. The engine failed to generate enough power to maintain flight, and the situation became worse the longer he was airborne. With diminishing altitude and airspeed, he became concerned about a possible stall/spin. He slowly banked toward a field, and pushed the nose over to maintain airspeed. He landed in terrain about 300 yards from the airport. The landing gear separated and the lower wings sustained substantial damage. The FAA inspector who supervised the post accident wreckage examination reported that there was a patch around the air intake duct. After lifting the patch partially off, he noted that the duct's inner support wire had collapsed. The duct collapsed inward as well. He opined that this restricted the air flow, and enriched the fuel mixture, which resulted in the loss of power.
Probable cause
the collapse of the air intake duct resulted in a loss of engine power. A factor was the uneven terrain in the landing area.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX06LA164
- Event ID
- 20060602X00669
- Case number
- LAX06LA164
- 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: f6c296ca4b04606f3bea4e12446c453417b9e63615e620723c779b711377466c; retrieved 2026-09-22T04:56:18.645Z.