ATL06CA082 · Ercoupe 415C
Ercoupe 415C · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Upper Cumberland Regional Airport (KSRB) to Crossville Memorial Airport Whitson Field (KCSV)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL06CA082
- 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
Ercoupe 415C
- Aircraft type
- Ercoupe 415
- 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
- N99083
- Operator
- James B. Stanley · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Upper Cumberland Regional Airport (KSRB), Sparta, TNTo Crossville Memorial Airport Whitson Field (KCSV), Crossville, TN
- 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
- 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; Tree(s)
- 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
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, annual inspection, 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 stated that the engine lost power while on final approach for landing. An engine restart was unsuccessful and a forced landing was made straight ahead. The airplane collided with trees and the ground. Review of airplane log books revealed the airplane had flown for 1.1 hours since the last annual inspection. Examination of the airplane by the FAA revealed the left and right fuel tanks contained fuel. The header fuel tank was dry and exhibited signs of brown corrosion attributed to tank sealant. The gascolator was half fuel of fuel and was contaminated. The contamination was brown in color and appeared to be fuel tank sealant. The gascolator was disassembled. The brown substance dried and turned into a very sticky substance. The carburetor was broken off the intake manifold and the fuel line to the carburetor was broken off. The carburetor was disassembled and the fuel screen was clean with no evidence of fuel. The engine driven fuel pump was examined and no anomalies were noted. The fuel lines were examined and no blockage was present. The mechanic who performed the annual inspection stated that during the annual inspection that he noticed the gascolator was about three fourths full of a dark brown liquid that was clearly separate from the fuel which was on top of the liquid. The check list used by the mechanic indicates the gascolator screen and bowl were checked for safety. The FAA concluded the contamination in the fuel system reduced the fuel flow to the carburetor resulting in fuel starvation.
Probable cause
Inadequate maintenance inspection resulting in fuel system contamination going undetected resulting in a total loss of engine power while on final approach to land.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL06CA082
- Event ID
- 20060623X00810
- Case number
- ATL06CA082
- 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: 823e13c5e84a3fdbc9705e6239777d19159b4e5f8e98c6eca4a8a22a5555f97e; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:46:16.971Z.