CHI06CA136 · Miller Rutan Long-Ez
Miller Rutan Long-Ez · Accident: loss of engine power on approach
From Barkley Regional Airport (PAH) to Morris Municipal Airport James R. Washburn field (C09)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI06CA136
- 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
Miller Rutan Long-Ez
- Aircraft type
- Miller RUTAN LONG-EZ
- 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
- N944SJ
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Barkley Regional Airport (PAH), Paducah, KYTo Morris Municipal Airport James R. Washburn field (C09), Morris, IL
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Pilot in command › Unsuitable terrain or takeoff/landing/taxi area, encountered
- 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
The amateur-built experimental airplane sustained substantial damage when it landed in a field with tall grass about 210 feet short of the paved runway. The pilot reported that he applied power when he recognized that he was low on the approach, but the engine did not respond and the airplane impacted the terrain. The inspection of the engine revealed that the crankshaft was intact and that there was compression on all cylinders. The engine was fuel injected and had electronic ignition. No deficiencies were found that would have precluded normal engine operation. The left fuel tank had 5 gallons of fuel and the right tank had 8 gallons of fuel. Both of the wooden propeller blades were shattered off about 12 inches from the hub.
Probable cause
The partial loss of engine power during the final approach to landing for undetermined reasons, and the unsuitable terrain for landing encountered by the pilot. The tall grass was a factor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI06CA136
- Event ID
- 20060620X00771
- Case number
- CHI06CA136
- 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: e54e0e70433f7bdf831f5fb25e9fdd77446ba68814fe40c26e3df9e51ca9b4a0; retrieved 2026-09-22T04:53:31.183Z.