WPR10LA341 · Ronald V White CH701
Ronald V White CH701 · Accident: loss of engine power (total) while maneuvering
From Flying J Ranch Airport (E37) to Flying J Ranch Airport (E37)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR10LA341
- 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
Ronald V White CH701
- Aircraft type
- Ronald V White CH701
- 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
- N3784A
- Operator
- Ronald V White · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Flying J Ranch Airport (E37), Pima, AZTo Flying J Ranch Airport (E37), Pima, AZ
- 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
- 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 as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that the purpose of the local flight was to practice maneuvers. After departure, the airplane climbed to 2,000 feet above ground level (agl). The pilot stated that the engine was running smoothly, producing full power, and he noted no anomalies. He then descended to 1,000 feet agl under cruise power, and after completing a turn, the engine had an immediate loss of power. It began to vibrate significantly and subsequently lost total power. The airplane collided with a tree during a forced landing on a road. Postaccident examination of the engine revealed that the spark plug in the right rear cylinder was fractured and separated in the porcelain area of the plug. The spark plug base remained screwed into the cylinder, and it was more than finger tight. The remainder of the plug was in the ignition harness’s rubber boot. There was no indication that the spark plug fractured due to impact damage. The spark plug was then replaced and the engine started with no anomalies noted. The engine had accumulated 4 hours since being installed on the airplane.
Probable cause
A total loss of engine power while maneuvering due to a spark plug failure.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR10LA341
- Event ID
- 20100712X13752
- Case number
- WPR10LA341
- 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. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2010-07-10.
- API snapshot SHA-256: b42549539083e064f867d53cda6eb0e3c0e97f0fe3121847c56ace4a0c68363e; retrieved 2026-09-15T14:40:33.715Z.