LAX07TA208 · WSK PZL Mielec M-18A
U.S. Forest Service WSK PZL Mielec M-18A · Accident: loss of engine power while maneuvering
From Burns Municipal Airport (BNO) to Burns Municipal Airport (BNO)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX07TA208
- 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
- Government
- 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
WSK PZL Mielec M-18A
- Aircraft type
- WSK PZL Mielec M-18
- 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
- N92043
- Operator
- U.S. Forest Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Burns Municipal Airport (BNO), Burns, ORTo Burns Municipal Airport (BNO), Burns, OR
- 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
- Public Aircraft
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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 from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane conducted three retardant drop missions in support of a wild fire suppression prior to the accident. During the fourth drop while overflying the intended drop zone at 1,500 feet above ground level, the engine lost power. The pilot attempted to restart the engine, but was not successful. Subsequently, the pilot jettisoned the retardant load, made an emergency radio call, and attempted a forced landing to a field with high vegetation and uneven terrain. The airplane touched down, skidded approximately 100 feet, and came to rest in an upright attitude. Examination of the fuel system did not reveal any anomalies that would have precluded normal operation prior to the impact with terrain. The engine was operated in a test cell. During the test cell operation, the engine exceeded the 1,000 shaft horsepower rating and was free of surge and operated normally during transient power demands. No pre-existing conditions that would have precluded normal engine operation were noted. The reason for the loss of engine power was not determined.
Probable cause
A loss of engine power for undetermined reasons. Contributing to the accident was the lack of suitable terrain for the forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX07TA208
- Event ID
- 20070723X00989
- Case number
- LAX07TA208
- 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: local date, investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2007-07-08.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 004c9d35a8e821689634861b3d23b8073396e170ac8b5b5c106424afff9cea49; retrieved 2026-09-18T21:13:58.341Z.