CEN14LA168 · Olson Perry D TITAN 51 MUSTANG
Olson Perry D TITAN 51 MUSTANG · Accident: loss of engine power (total) en route
From Platte Valley Airpark (18V) to Greeley–Weld County Airport (GXY)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN14LA168
- 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
Olson Perry D TITAN 51 MUSTANG
- Aircraft type
- Olson Perry TITAN 51
- 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
- N43889
- Operator
- Olson Perry D
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Platte Valley Airpark (18V), Hudson, COTo Greeley–Weld County Airport (GXY), Greeley, CO
- Aircraft age
- About 6 years (built 2008)
- 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 · cruise
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
- Personnel issues › Task performance
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 reported that, about 15 minutes into the flight and 6 miles from his arrival airport, the airplane lost all engine and electrical power. The pilot established the best glide speed for the airplane, turned on the auxiliary fuel pump switch, and tried to extend the landing gear. When he realized that the electrically powered landing gear would not extend, he decided to land the airplane in a pasture next to a road. After touchdown, the airplane slid about 70 feet before coming to a stop. The pilot opened the canopy, turned off the fuel and all other switches, and exited the airplane.
An examination of the airplane's electrical system showed that neither of the airplane's 12-volt batteries would hold a charge. The examination also showed that both the main and auxiliary fuel pumps were wired to the battery-powered bus. According to the engine manufacturer's service representative, if a battery power failure occurs, the engine would quit running if both fuel pumps were connected to the battery bus instead of one being connected to the internal engine generator. When the batteries failed, both fuel pumps ceased operating, and the engine failed.
Probable cause
The builder's improper wiring of both fuel pumps to the battery-powered bus, which resulted in a total loss of engine power when the batteries failed because all power to the fuel pumps was lost.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN14LA168
- Event ID
- 20140324X85530
- Case number
- CEN14LA168
- 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: 7eb835c673a40c54f89068a459f914bd83babdb5cc45343490ef6fa8afc1834e; retrieved 2026-09-15T23:26:55.011Z.