WPR12LA217 · Jackson TOP DOG
Jackson TOP DOG · Accident: loss of engine power (total) during initial climb
From Apple Valley, CA to Apple Valley, CA
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR12LA217
- 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
Jackson TOP DOG
- Aircraft type
- Jackson TOP DOG
- Category
- Weight-Shift
- 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
- N214AB
- Operator
- Helman Michael
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Apple Valley, CATo Apple Valley, CA
- 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 power plant
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The student pilot reported that during the initial climb after takeoff, the engine stopped producing power. During his attempt to turn toward a nearby road for an emergency landing, the airplane descended rapidly into the terrain. In addition to a number of minor anomalies associated with the engine, the postaccident examination revealed three anomalies (cracked carburetor sockets, an incorrectly installed fuel pump, and an incorrectly calibrated high altitude corrector) that had the potential to contribute to a loss of engine power. However, because none of the three noted anomalies would necessarily have led to the engine stoppage, the reason for the loss of engine power could not be determined.
Probable cause
A loss of engine power during the initial climb for reasons that could not be determined because the anomalies revealed during the postaccident examination would not have necessarily precluded normal operation. Contributing to the accident was the inadequate maintenance, which failed to detect existing anomalies in engine-related systems.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR12LA217
- Event ID
- 20120519X73148
- Case number
- WPR12LA217
- 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: 128219229959d2ff4707496bac0a752bc57c1066ba1a92245de27e29577196cb; retrieved 2026-09-15T18:11:09.571Z.