CEN12CA051 · Downer BELLANCA 14-19-2
Downer BELLANCA 14-19-2 · Accident: loss of engine power (total) en route
From Hale County Airport (KPVW) to Borger, TX
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN12CA051
- 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
Downer BELLANCA 14-19-2
- Aircraft type
- Downer BELLANCA 14
- 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
- N711W
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hale County Airport (KPVW), Plainview, TXTo Borger, 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
- En route · descent
- 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
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot was on a cross-country flight at 9,500 feet mean sea level. About 20 miles from his destination, he started the descent to the airport. The pilot reported that he looked at his fuel gauge and decided to switch fuel tanks when the airplane reached 5,000 feet. As he leveled the airplane, the engine lost power before the pilot switched fuel tanks. He turned on the fuel pump and attempted to turn the fuel selector knob. However, the knob broke in half, leaving just the post. Unable to turn the post and restart the engine, the pilot elected to conduct a forced landing in an open area. During the forced landing, the left wing was nearly severed in two by impact with a tree, the landing gear collapsed, and the fuselage sustained substantial damage. After the accident, the pilot stated that he mistakenly turned the fuel gauge selector knob and not the fuel selector knob then got distracted by the knob breaking.
Probable cause
A total loss of engine power due to fuel starvation as a result of the pilot’s improper fuel management. Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s diverted attention with the broken fuel gauge knob.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN12CA051
- Event ID
- 20111103X84328
- Case number
- CEN12CA051
- 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: 90badebd74f919894c1b8e2985bedb5b639ef475c9105b6fcad9afd8310a9111; retrieved 2026-09-15T16:54:45.980Z.