FLIGHT FINDINGSAVIATION OCCURRENCE MAP
Back to map

ERA13LA429 · de Havilland DH 82A

22 Sept 2013 · Rhinebeck, NY, United States

de Havilland DH 82A · Accident: loss of engine power (total) during an emergency descent

From Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome (NY94) to Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome (NY94)

Report a problem

Event

NTSB case
ERA13LA429
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

de Havilland DH 82A

Aircraft type
de Havilland DH-82
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
N9410
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome (NY94), Rhinebeck, NYTo Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome (NY94), Rhinebeck, NY
Aircraft age
About 73 years (built 1940)
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
Emergency 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)
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

  • Not determined › Not determined

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

The pilot stated that he performed an engine run-up before takeoff and checked the magnetos twice at different rpm settings and noted no discrepancies. He applied full power during takeoff and noted that the engine was developing full power. At the departure end of the runway and after the pilot had reduced power, the engine began to backfire and lose power. He immediately turned the airplane for a downwind landing on the runway, and the engine quit. After the airplane cleared trees, he slipped the airplane to lose altitude but realized that he was running out of available runway. He then intentionally maneuvered left and collided with trees. The engine was run briefly postaccident, and no discrepancies were noted. A prolonged engine run at full power could not be performed due to damage to the engine mount. No discrepancies were noted with the air induction, ignition, or fuel system. Although the weather conditions were favorable for serious icing at glide power, the pilot reported that the engine developed full power during the takeoff, so it is unlikely that carburetor icing caused the loss of engine power. The reason for the total loss of engine power could not be determined.

Probable cause

The total loss of engine power for reasons that could not be determined because postaccident examinations revealed no anomalies that would have precluded normal operation, which resulted in a forced landing into trees.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record ERA13LA429
Event ID
20130924X85257
Case number
ERA13LA429
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: 7390b20cccba4d27a5fca1024e2cb1cf8f452bc236d9a5f5db88f10b546179c0; retrieved 2026-09-15T22:54:15.264Z.