CEN13LA063 · Redd TOM QUICKSILVER GT 400
Redd TOM QUICKSILVER GT 400 · Accident: loss of engine power (total) on approach
From Oak Grove, LA to Oak Grove, LA
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's location. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN13LA063
- 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
Redd TOM QUICKSILVER GT 400
- Aircraft type
- Redd Tom QUICKSILVER GT 400
- 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
- N4031Q
- Operator
- Randy Capers
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Oak Grove, LATo Oak Grove, LA
- 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
- Approach
- 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
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot had recently purchased the light-sport airplane and was on his first flight in the airplane. A witness reported seeing the airplane disappear from sight; the engine sound stopped, and immediately heard a crash. Examination revealed that the airplane collided with a tree, before impacting the ground in a nose down, left wing low attitude. Additionally, the examination revealed the airplane was equipped with a ballistic parachute system; however, the safety pin was found still installed in the parachute's firing handle. The airplane was equipped with an electric fuel pump installed in series with the engine's fuel pump. The engine manufacturer's manual states the following: "If the fuel tank is considerably lower than the engine, an electric pump should be used; this pump is to be connected in parallel as in case of series-connection the fuel pressure would be excessive." The fuel pump installed on the engine was identified as one typically used on two stroke engines. The engine technician noted that this style pump does not have the bleed holes in it, and without these bleed holes, this style pump may hydro lock. The in-line fuel filter installed was a paper type filter and appeared dirty with contaminates in it. Additionally, the installation manual states the following: "A suitable fuel filter of 0.15 mm mesh size must be fitted between pump and carburetor. Do not use paper filters." Although, the examination noted these abnormalities, a specific reason for the loss of engine power was not identified; however, it is likely that one or more of these abnormalities resulted in the engine's loss of power.
Probable cause
The total loss of engine power, the specific cause of which could not be identified during the postaccident examination, and the airplane’s subsequent impact with trees.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN13LA063
- Event ID
- 20121119X22007
- Case number
- CEN13LA063
- 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: 80295d5d83501788fb54f5e8fd1694a524aaad538708f7d7a41317b16c1b3e79; retrieved 2026-09-14T15:48:32.334Z.