CEN11FA228 · Waco UPF-7
Waco UPF-7 · Accident: loss of engine power (total) while maneuvering
From Brownsville South Padre Island International Airport (BRO) to Brownsville South Padre Island International Airport (BRO)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN11FA228
- 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
Waco UPF-7
- Aircraft type
- Waco UPF-7
- 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
- N30136
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Brownsville South Padre Island International Airport (BRO), Brownsville, TXTo Brownsville South Padre Island International Airport (BRO), Brownsville, TX
- 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 · aerobatics
- 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)
- 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
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
On the day prior to the accident, the pilot performed a solo air show flight, and the engine lost power during the taxi after landing. No anomalies were noted that caused the loss of engine power. About one hour prior to the accident flight, the pilot performed a solo air show flight with no anomalies. After the solo flight, the airplane was refueled, and the pilot performed the wing walker performance. Approximately 5 minutes into the performance, the engine lost power. The airplane impacted terrain adjacent to the runway and a postimpact fire ensued. The wing walker, who was located in the front area of the fuselage, sustained multiple burns, and succumbed to her injuries approximately 2 months after the accident. Postaccident examination of the engine and its fuel system revealed no anomalies that would have precluded normal operations. Video and photographic evidence showed from the engine exhaust, prior to the loss of engine power, which can indicate a flooded condition; however, the reason for the flooded condition and loss of engine power could not be determined.
Probable cause
The loss of engine power for undetermined reasons.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN11FA228
- Event ID
- 20110316X01549
- Case number
- CEN11FA228
- 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: 0bebec0978f461acad3924b09d46df8f5a6d3d8760fb6d58fc6b12ec75291fc2; retrieved 2026-09-15T15:54:53.764Z.