CEN12LA012 · Taylorcraft BL-65
Taylorcraft BL-65 · Accident: loss of engine power (total) during initial climb
From Easton, MO (private airstrip) to Rosecrans Memorial Airport (STJ)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN12LA012
- 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
Taylorcraft BL-65
- Aircraft type
- Taylorcraft BL-65
- 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
- N27492
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Easton, MO (private airstrip)To Rosecrans Memorial Airport (STJ), St Joseph, MO
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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 oper/perf/capability
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
- Aircraft › Fluids/miscellaneous hardware
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The engine began to lose power during the initial climb after takeoff. The pilot elected to remain in the traffic pattern and return for landing; however, the engine subsequently lost power completely. The pilot prepared for a forced landing, but the airplane stalled about 20 feet above the ground and impacted a field. A postaccident examination revealed sufficient debris in the fuel system to restrict fuel flow to the carburetor. In addition, debris was observed in the individual gas containers used to fuel the airplane. The pilot reported that he used automotive gasoline and fueled the airplane from individual cans stored on site. Airplane maintenance records indicated that the most recent annual inspection was completed in June 2005. Regulations require an inspection to be completed within the preceding 12 calendar months.
Probable cause
Debris in the fuel system, which resulted in a loss of engine power due to fuel starvation. Also causal was the pilot not maintaining sufficient airspeed, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN12LA012
- Event ID
- 20111011X73546
- Case number
- CEN12LA012
- 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: ffb5f5d94784472bf39d371a461982322793d54c2eee0bce030a45fee62e79bf; retrieved 2026-09-15T16:49:47.647Z.