CEN11FA436 · Ray Aerial Spraying 773 Racer
Ray Aerial Spraying 773 Racer · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) en route
From Ottumwa Regional Airport (OTM) to Hedrick, IA
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN11FA436
- 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
Ray Aerial Spraying 773 Racer
- Aircraft type
- Ray Aerial Spraying 773
- 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
- N773RY
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ottumwa Regional Airport (OTM), Ottumwa, IATo Hedrick, IA
- 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
- 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 (partial)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A witness reported that he saw the accident airplane on a crosswind leg for the runway when the nose suddenly went down and the pilot began to maneuver toward the runway. Wreckage path evidence, the location of the initial impact, and a witness statement suggested that the pilot of the amateur-built airplane was making a short, left-hand approach to the runway but had insufficient altitude to reach the paved runway surface. The airplane impacted a berm about 650 feet left of the approach end of the runway, travelled an additional 250 feet, and erupted into flames. Examination of the airplane’s engine, and ignition system revealed no evidence of a preimpact mechanical malfunction.
Examination of the airplane’s fuel system was not possible due to the extensive fire damage, and no determination of the preimpact condition of the fuel system components could be made. Examination of the airplane’s propeller showed damage consistent with engine rotation with minimal power applied at impact. The witness report, wreckage path evidence, and propeller damage were consistent with an attempt to land the airplane following a loss of engine power.
Probable cause
The loss of engine power for reasons that could not be determined because postaccident examination of the airplane’s engine and ignition system did not reveal any anomalies that would have precluded normal operation, and extensive postaccident fire damage precluded evaluation of the airplane’s fuel system components.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN11FA436
- Event ID
- 20110702X75951
- Case number
- CEN11FA436
- 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: a665205b202a2e5bc0ec6d48f79b3a37518afc5d798f6ae3449556008a69bfc3; retrieved 2026-09-13T21:30:33.317Z.