ATL07LA116 · Niva Thorp T-18
Niva Thorp T-18 · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From Wellington Aero Club Airport (FD38) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL07LA116
- 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
- 2 · 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
Niva Thorp T-18
- Aircraft type
- Niva THORP T-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
- N6GN
- Operator
- Scott M. Schlander · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Wellington Aero Club Airport (FD38), Wellington, FLTo not recorded
- 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
- 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 contamination
- 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 › Contamination, water
- Induction air control, intake manifold › Blocked(partial)
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Witnesses stated that they observed the airplane in level flight, about 300 feet above the ground, when the engine quit. The airplane was then observed executing a left turn in an attempt to return to the airport. During the left turn, the airplane began to descend at a rapid rate, then impacted the ground. Examination of the engine by the Federal Aviation Administration found that the engine rotated freely and had continuity through the accessory section. Water was observed in various portions of the fuel system, with the most significant amount of water found in the electric fuel pump. The foam air filter element was found lodged in the inlet of the throttle body, which would have obstructed air flow into the engine causing it to quit. Normally, the filter element would be positioned at the opening of the induction system intake. The pilot’s father indicated that the pilot had previous problems starting the engine when it was at operating temperatures.
Probable cause
A loss of engine power due to a partially blocked intake manifold and water contamination of the fuel.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL07LA116
- Event ID
- 20070822X01224
- Case number
- ATL07LA116
- 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: 6aa1480437af852bfcfd8423d3296717eaa13e100c794d8a75247ea8877019d2; retrieved 2026-09-20T16:20:53.535Z.