WPR15LA085 · Cubcrafters Inc CC11-160
Cubcrafters Inc CC11-160 · Accident: powerplant system/component malfunction/failure en route
From San Luis County Regional Airport (SBP) to San Luis County Regional Airport (SBP)
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
- WPR15LA085
- 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
Cubcrafters Inc CC11-160
- Aircraft type
- Cubcrafters CC11
- 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
- N232LT
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From San Luis County Regional Airport (SBP), San Luis Obispo, CATo San Luis County Regional Airport (SBP), San Luis Obispo, CA
- Aircraft age
- About 2 years (built 2013)
- 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
- Powerplant system/component malfunction/failure
- 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 › Psychological
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, not marked as estimated; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that, about 40 minutes after takeoff for the local sightseeing flight, he noticed that the engine oil gauge wasn't indicating properly and that, about 1 minute later, the engine started to "skip." Shortly later, the engine lost all power, and the pilot performed a forced landing to a field. The experimental light-sport airplane nosed over and sustained substantial damage. Neither occupant was injured.
Examination revealed considerable oil streaking along the airplane's entire belly in an area obscured from the pilot's view while in flight. Further examination revealed that the oil pressure transducer supply line, which was made of copper tubing, had separated from its fitting on the engine accessory case. Data from the airplane's engine monitoring system (EMS) showed that, about 9 minutes after takeoff, the engine oil pressure dropped out of range, indicating that the supply line failed at that time; the data also showed that a flashing visual oil pressure alert occurred. For the remaining 28 minutes of flight, the oil pressure remained the same, and the alert remained active as all of the engine's oil was expelled out of the separated oil pressure transducer supply line and overboard.
The failed copper tubing oil pressure transducer supply line was the subject of a service bulletin (SB), which recommended either periodic inspection of the copper tubing for leaks or replacement of it with a flexible hose. Despite being inspected in accordance with the SB, the supply line still failed. Following the accident, the airplane manufacturer issued a mandatory service alert, which required the replacement of the copper tubing with a flexible hose.
As noted, the EMS data indicated that a flashing visual oil pressure alert was issued to the pilot as soon as the oil pressure transducer supply line failed; however, he did not notice the alert and continued the flight. He eventually observed the alert just before the engine seized. If he had noticed when the supply line failed, he would have had ample time to return to the departure airport before the oil was exhausted. Given that this was a sightseeing flight and that the majority of it was flown toward the sun, it is likely that the pilot was distracted during the flight and possibly encountered sun glare that obscured a clear view of the airplane's instrument panel.
Probable cause
The pilot's inadequate instrument scan during cruise flight, which resulted in his failure to notice a loss of engine oil pressure. Contributing to the accident was the failure of the oil pressure transducer supply line, which resulted in oil exhaustion and a total loss of engine power.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR15LA085
- Event ID
- 20150116X71118
- Case number
- WPR15LA085
- 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: eab258bcb473a67cab40afc2b9b43f9769efced86bc28d09966a0a64536a140b; retrieved 2026-09-16T02:01:52.344Z.