LAX06LA274 · North American Navion A
North American Navion A · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during takeoff
From 23CN · Douthitt Strip, CA to Imperial County Airport (IPL)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX06LA274
- 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
North American Navion A
- Aircraft type
- North American NAVION
- 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
- N947A
- Operator
- Ryan Douthitt
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 23CN · Douthitt Strip, CATo Imperial County Airport (IPL), Imperial County, 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
- Takeoff · roll/run
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Fuel system, selector/valve › Worn
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The engine lost partial power on takeoff and the pilot force-landed the airplane in a field. The airplane was involved in a similar accident 2 years prior. After being rebuilt, the pilot (who was also the aviation maintenance technician who rebuilt it) was relocating the airplane to a nearby airport. Post accident examination and testing of the fuel selector showed that the detent ring was bent and the air bypassed internally between the ports. With the detent ring bent, positive engagement of the fuel selector's position was difficult to ascertain. In addition, the shaft was worn. The type certificate holder for the airplane had released two Service Bulletins to replace the aging valves. In addition, the Federal Aviation Administration issued a Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin recommending aircraft owners test the valves for internal leakage and condition, and if necessary, replace them.
Probable cause
The partial loss of engine power during takeoff, as a result of air being sucked into the fuel system due to a worn fuel selector valve stem and a bent detent ring.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX06LA274
- Event ID
- 20060901X01277
- Case number
- LAX06LA274
- 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: 46a5b12e7cb0fbb6e42142db6420e92f1943e4ca6b3ebdc7ae1d1e5a9ec187aa; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:41:30.355Z.