NYC08LA107 · Christer Vans RV9-A
Christer Vans RV9-A · Accident: loss of engine power (total) during initial climb
From Princeton Airport (39N) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC08LA107
- 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
Christer Vans RV9-A
- Aircraft type
- Christer VANS RV9-A
- 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
- N159AS
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Princeton Airport (39N), Princeton, NJTo 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
- Defining eventThe 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 (total)
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Prior to the accident flight, the airplane had accumulated about 1 flight hour since the pilot completed the installation of a new aftermarket fuel injection and ignition system. Shortly after takeoff on the accident flight, as the pilot turned onto the crosswind leg of the traffic pattern, the engine lost power, and the propeller "stopped." The pilot added that he believed the electrical system was functioning at the time because the electronic flight instrument system and the communication radio continued to function. The pilot subsequently performed a forced landing into the dense forest below. Although the wreckage was fire-damaged during the recovery process, examination of the engine revealed that while the pilot had installed a new after market fuel injection/ignition system , an original-equipment diode bridge remained in place. The diode bridge provided dual electrical paths to the engine control unit, thereby providing electrical power to the ignition system. The original ignition system, for which the diode bridge was designed, drew between 4 and 6 amperes for operation, while the aftermarket system drew between 8 and 12 amperes. The only manifestation of a failure of the diode bridge would be on engine operation; the remainder of the electrical system would continue to function normally.
Probable cause
A loss of engine power due to the pilot/owner's improper installation of a new ignition/fuel control system for the engine. Contributing was the unsuitable terrain for a forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC08LA107
- Event ID
- 20080319X00337
- Case number
- NYC08LA107
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: c59ff8522e60eb511d3e35e569d1b83a354ce2bfe8a4f566ddcc39dd53de68c7; retrieved 2026-09-15T09:26:35.554Z.