CEN12CA003 · Sadler Terry RANS S-7 COURIER
Sadler Terry RANS S-7 COURIER · Accident: fuel starvation during takeoff
From Leo's Place Airport (1KS3) to Leo's Place Airport (1KS3)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN12CA003
- 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
Sadler Terry RANS S-7 COURIER
- Aircraft type
- Sadler Terry RANS S-7 COURIER
- 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
- N2417T
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Leo's Place Airport (1KS3), Riley, KSTo Leo's Place Airport (1KS3), Riley, KS
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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 starvation
- 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 systems
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that he had finished flying for the day and had turned off the fuel shutoff valve and tied the airplane down. He noticed a family with a 10-year-old boy at the airport and offered to give the boy a ride around the field. The pilot untied the airplane, put the boy in the back seat, started the engine, and taxied to the runway. During takeoff, about 30 feet above ground level, the engine stopped and the airplane impacted the ground and obstructions on the edge of the airport. The impact collapsed the left main landing gear and deformed the forward lower fuselage, causing substantial damage. The pilot reported that he had failed to complete a preflight cockpit check and did not turn on the fuel shutoff valve. In addition, the pilot reported that shoulder harnesses were installed and available but were not worn.
Probable cause
A total loss of engine power during takeoff due to fuel starvation as a result of the pilot’s inadequate preflight inspection and failure to ensure that the fuel shutoff valve was turned on before departure.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN12CA003
- Event ID
- 20111003X55220
- Case number
- CEN12CA003
- 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: ce4d3383b8a962ecf3ee89ed256644ad56dd3215e8506790b082be064fd5af41; retrieved 2026-09-15T16:48:31.337Z.