DFW07LA010 · Taylor Zodiac 601
Taylor Zodiac 601 · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From John B Connally Ranch Airport (8TA0) to San Antonio, TX
Event
- NTSB case
- DFW07LA010
- 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
Taylor Zodiac 601
- Aircraft type
- Taylor ZODIAC 601
- 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
- N143DT
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From John B Connally Ranch Airport (8TA0), San Antonio, TXTo San Antonio, TX
- 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
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A 1,900-hour private pilot departed from a 3,000-foot long by 40-foot wide runway, in a single engine experimental airplane on a local flight. Immediately after takeoff, while the airplane was climbing through approximately 300 feet above the ground, the pilot reported experiencing a total loss of engine power. Due to the low altitude, the pilot was only able to make one attempt to restart the engine. The pilot reported that he was unable to start the engine. The airplane sustained structural damage during the forced landing. Fuel was present in the airplane's fuel tanks. After the airplane was recovered, the engine was inspected. The engine examination revealed the engine itself did not sustain any damage. A thumb compression test was conducted on each cylinder, fuel was present in both carburetor bowls, and the electric fuel pump operated and displaced fuel. The engine's electric starter was used to rotate the engine, and ignition spark was observed on each top cylinder sparkplug. No anomalies were found that could have prevented normal engine operation. The reason for the reported loss of engine power could not be determined. A review of the airplane's cockpit area revealed that no markings or labeling were associated with the fuel shutoff valve. A row of assorted electrical fuses were also found to be unmarked.
Probable cause
The loss of engine power for undetermined reasons. A contributing factor was the lack of suitable terrain for the forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DFW07LA010
- Event ID
- 20061031X01577
- Case number
- DFW07LA010
- 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. 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: f2f0cdad5bd1bea90a4dd80d58fe0cb763d852e1c92997813f9585417a6667c9; retrieved 2026-09-22T04:18:05.858Z.