ERA09LA184 · Kevin Eldredge Stewart S51D
Kevin Eldredge Stewart S51D · Accident: fuel contamination while maneuvering
From Ocala, FL to Ocala, FL
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA09LA184
- 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
- 1 · 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
Kevin Eldredge Stewart S51D
- Aircraft type
- Kevin Eldredge STEWART
- 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
- N551X
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ocala, FLTo Ocala, FL
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Fuel contamination
- 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
- Tower/antenna (incl guy wires)
- 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 as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
About 6 years before the accident, the owner/pilot purchased the disassembled experimental amateur-built airplane from its builder, who had flown the airplane on multiple occasions. The pilot reassembled the airplane, and spent several months attempting to resolve fuel leaks in the airplane's integral wing tanks. Subsequent to the pilot's use of a slosh sealant in the fuel tanks, the engine lost power during two separate high-speed taxi tests, due to clogged fuel screens. The day prior to the accident, the pilot conducted his first flight in the airplane, which lasted about 18 minutes. During his second flight in the airplane, the pilot was fatally injured when the airplane impacted trees and terrain about 11 miles from his home airport, and a post-crash fire ensued. Many witnesses reported that the airplane was low, and that the engine sounded unusual. Five witnesses reported that the engine had stopped. Several witnesses reported that the airplane banked sharply in order to avoid a 500-foot-tall cell phone tower located about 500 feet from the impact location. Airplane assembly guidance specified the use of a commercial sealant called "Pro-Seal" during fuel tank assembly, but did not specify or prohibit the use of a slosh sealant, which was intended to be used after assembly. The technical information for the slosh sealant that was found in the pilot's hangar stated that the condition and cleanliness of the surface can affect sealant adhesion. Examination of the wreckage revealed that the interior surfaces of the wing bays that were used to contain fuel exhibited a charred brown/black material consistent with a fire-damaged internal tank coating. One in-tank fuel pickup finger screen was partially occluded by the material, but the pre-accident condition of the finger screen could not be determined.
Probable cause
A loss of engine power due to contamination and clogging of the fuel system by a post-assembly fuel tank sealant.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA09LA184
- Event ID
- 20090306X81813
- Case number
- ERA09LA184
- 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. 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: 028b756771051cf6440aa45d64d11e9f0c04dc44f2c241b3286763ddecb64bcb; retrieved 2026-09-13T19:58:46.265Z.