WPR10LA119 · Czech Aircraft Works Spol SRO SPORTCRUISER
Czech Aircraft Works Spol SRO SPORTCRUISER · Accident: fuel contamination en route
From Palm Springs International Airport (PSP) to Palm Springs International Airport (PSP)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR10LA119
- 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
Czech Aircraft Works Spol SRO SPORTCRUISER
- Aircraft type
- Czech Aircraft Works SPORTCRUISER
- 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
- N243SC
- Operator
- John McAleer
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Palm Springs International Airport (PSP), Palm Springs, CATo Palm Springs International Airport (PSP), Palm Springs, 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- 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 › Fluids/miscellaneous hardware
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot conducted a preflight inspection of the airplane, which included taking samples of fuel from the airframe fuel sump drains. He noted no evidence of water within these fuel samples. While en route to his destination, the pilot decided to switch the fuel supply to come from the left tank rather than the right, in an effort to remedy a slight fuel imbalance. Shortly after changing the tank selection, the engine experienced a total loss of power. Despite multiple attempts, the pilot was unable to restart the engine and initiated a forced landing to a nearby field. The pilot stated that, due to a headwind, he was unable to reach his original intended landing area and decided on a second field, closer to his position. As the airplane approached the field, it stalled and landed hard.
During a postaccident examination of the airframe, investigators applied compressed air to both the left and right wing fuel inlet lines and observed a small amount of liquid originating from the engine inlet fuel line at the firewall. The liquid was tested using water finding paste with positive results. No additional anomalies were noted with the airframe that would have precluded normal operation. Examination of the engine revealed that the engine-driven fuel pump contained residual liquid. The liquid was tested using water finding paste with positive results. In addition, the carburetors were examined and disassembled; a white paste-like and flaky substance was noted within both carburetor float bowls. One carburetor float bowl contained about two ounces of a milky white liquid, which tested positive for water. The engine was installed on an engine test stand and run at various rpm settings before being shut off using the mixture control lever. No additional anomalies were noted with the engine that would have precluded normal operation and production of power.
Probable cause
A loss of engine power during cruise flight due to water contamination in the fuel.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR10LA119
- Event ID
- 20100126X21214
- Case number
- WPR10LA119
- 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: 313ddaa39fb82db081da0ae6f4da931ba8212e3bfbd1b6c1bb739adea8f3860b; retrieved 2026-09-15T13:38:47.101Z.