WPR09LA025 · Naval Aircraft Factory N3N-3
Naval Aircraft Factory N3N-3 · Accident: loss of engine power (total) during initial climb
From L67 · Rialto, CA to Flabob Airport (RIR)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR09LA025
- 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
Naval Aircraft Factory N3N-3
- Aircraft type
- Naval Aircraft Factory N3
- 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
- N44848
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From L67 · Rialto, CATo Flabob Airport (RIR), Riverside, CA
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft power plant
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot performed a preflight inspection of the company airplane in preparation for a local area round-robin flight. After all systems appeared to function normally, the pilot took off and flew to his first intended landing site. Then, the pilot took off for the return flight. According to the pilot, during the ensuing takeoff, the "engine power output and acceleration were normal." However, upon climbing about 150 feet above the runway, "the engine smoothly lost power....The power loss felt like the throttle lever [was] being smoothly closed from takeoff power to idle. There was no engine roughness, vibration, or perceived reduced power output preceding the loss of power, and no backfiring or sputtering [was] associated with the power loss." The pilot made a forced landing in an open field ahead of the airplane. The airplane collided with vegetation during the landing rollout. A teardown examination of the airplane's carburetor was performed, and internal anomalies were found regarding its assembly. The main fuel jets were found too small for the engine application, and the mixture shaft was improperly keyed and/or out of alignment with its respective track. This anomaly likely resulted in unreliable mixture settings and an interruption of fuel flow to the engine.
Probable cause
A total loss of engine power during initial climb due to an interruption in fuel flow through an improperly assembled carburetor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR09LA025
- Event ID
- 20081026X64556
- Case number
- WPR09LA025
- 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: 54b6d00115f066e8aee3468345c2c023e82c91024ae7d42c0f6247f7e4c31f33; retrieved 2026-09-15T10:30:21.902Z.