SEA08LA216 · Brennan RV-8
Brennan RV-8 · Accident: fire/smoke (non-impact) while taxiing
From Idaho Falls Regional Airport (IDA) to 36U · Heber, UT
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's location. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA08LA216
- 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
Brennan RV-8
- Aircraft type
- Brennan RV-8
- 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
- N272RS
- Operator
- George Brennan
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Idaho Falls Regional Airport (IDA), Idaho Falls, IDTo 36U · Heber, UT
- 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
- Taxi · to runway
- 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
- Fire/smoke (non-impact)
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
- Aircraft › Fluids/miscellaneous hardware
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
While taxiing to the runway for departure, the pilot noticed flames entering the cockpit below his feet. He immediately stopped the airplane and shut the engine down and he and his passenger exited the airplane. The airport’s Aircraft Rescue Fire Fighting (ARFF) team responded and extinguished the fire, which was originating from the engine compartment. A few minutes later, the fire reportedly ignited a second time and was immediately extinguished by ARFF personnel. Examination of the airplane revealed that the engine firewall was fire damaged and buckled. A "B" nut attaching the firewall end of the fuel line from the firewall to the engine driven fuel pump was found "finger tight." When the airplane was placed in a tail high attitude, fuel was observed leaking from this fitting. The reason for the loose "B" nut was undetermined.
Probable cause
The on-ground fire during taxi due to a loose fuel line "B" nut.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA08LA216
- Event ID
- 20081006X60439
- Case number
- SEA08LA216
- 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: 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 2008-10-01.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 44f46a9447351c392d70c41318f247f03daa65b6861031d73cd3d041ef9d357c; retrieved 2026-09-15T10:24:23.928Z.