NYC06CA118 · Espinal Velocity Jet 900
Espinal Velocity Jet 900 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Sky Acres Airport (44N) to 44N
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC06CA118
- 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
Espinal Velocity Jet 900
- Aircraft type
- Espinal VELOCITY JET 900
- 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
- N289AE
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sky Acres Airport (44N), Millbrook, NYTo 44N
- 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
- Partial 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Owner/builder › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
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/owner/builder departed on his first solo flight in the homebuilt, jet-powered, Velocity Jet 900 airplane with no jet airplane experience or training. After takeoff, the airplane climbed above traffic pattern altitude at "4 to 5 thousand feet-per-minute" and accelerated above 200 knots on the downwind leg of the traffic pattern. The pilot reduced power to flight idle to descend and complete the traffic pattern for landing. The airplane was "low" on the base leg of the pattern, the pilot advanced the throttle, the engine did not accelerate, but continued to run at the flight idle setting. As the airplane approached the runway, "I got too slow, lost control, and crashed 100 feet short of the runway." Examination of the wreckage revealed the fuel tank vent was clogged with dirt and insect remains. There were no other deficiencies noted.
Probable cause
The pilot/owner's inadequate preflight which resulted in a partial loss of engine power due to a clogged fuel vent.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC06CA118
- Event ID
- 20060622X00793
- Case number
- NYC06CA118
- 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: c200714ca3aff376021d0a3bc6d28cbc5f02f32485a39240ac7f3a136122c5a9; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:46:04.170Z.