CHI07LA106 · Browns Vans RV-7A
Browns Vans RV-7A · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Lewis University Airport (LOT) to Lewis University Airport (LOT)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI07LA106
- 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
Browns Vans RV-7A
- Aircraft type
- Browns VANS RV-7A
- 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
- N799WB
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lewis University Airport (LOT), Romeoville, ILTo Lewis University Airport (LOT)
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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)
- 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 from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane was substantially damaged during a forced landing following a loss of engine power. According to the pilot, the engine "suddenly lost power and started running rough" while in cruise flight at 6,500 feet mean sea level. The pilot set the propeller to low pitch and manipulated the engine throttle without any noticeable effect on engine operation. The engine continued to run "rough" after he switched fuel tanks. The pilot elected to perform an off-field landing on a "narrow gravel lane with rough surface and significant potholes." During the landing rollout the airplane departed off the left side of the road and nosed over in the adjacent ditch. During subsequent testing, the engine demonstrated normal operation throughout its entire rpm/horsepower range. Engine rpm was cycled rapidly between flight idle and maximum continuous rpm several times without any hesitation in engine operation. No anomalies were noted during the engine test run that would have prevented its normal operation. At departure, the airplane reportedly had 38 gallons of 100 low lead aviation fuel onboard. Examination of the wreckage confirmed there was sufficient fuel available for engine operation, and there was fuel found in the line from the fuselage to the mechanical fuel pump.
Probable cause
Engine failure during cruise flight for undetermined reasons. A factor was the rough/uneven terrain
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI07LA106
- Event ID
- 20070423X00448
- Case number
- CHI07LA106
- 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: 7a7bc863de6e1400f01c42e2229324aa3aaf5ae7e152a12173dd45d10ed56231; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:32:42.642Z.