ERA15FA353 · Aero Vodochody L39 C
Aero Vodochody L39 C · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) during initial climb
From Scott Municipal Airport (SCX) to Scott Municipal Airport (SCX)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA15FA353
- 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
Aero Vodochody L39 C
- Aircraft type
- Aero Vodochody L39
- 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
- N139RT
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Scott Municipal Airport (SCX), Oneida, TNTo Scott Municipal Airport (SCX), Oneida, TN
- Aircraft age
- About 32 years (built 1983)
- 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 (partial)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Not determined › Not determined
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot of the single-engine, high-performance, jet airplane was scheduled to be the final performer at an air show. Several witnesses who observed the airplane take off reported that the airplane seemed "slow" during climbout. A witness located near the end of the departure runway stated that the airplane did not appear to be climbing as quickly as other jet-powered airplanes he had previously observed. This witness reported that the airplane made a right turn and pitched -up to gain altitude, and then the engine lost power. The airplane subsequently descended nose first and impacted trees and terrain about 2 miles west of the airport. The wreckage was severely fragmented, scattered along a 325-ft debris path, and partially consumed by a postimpact fire.
Examination of the airframe and engine did not reveal evidence of any preimpact mechanical malfunctions. Although bending of fan blades opposite the direction of rotation indicated that the engine was rotating at the time of impact, imprints of fan blade tips on the shrouds with no circumferential rub marks indicated that the engine had little rotational energy and was operating at low power. Extensive damage to the fuel control unit precluded a functional test for any anomalies that could have resulted in or contributed to a loss of engine power.
Although one toxicology laboratory identified ethanol in the pilot's muscle tissue, a second laboratory did not, indicating that the ethanol was from postmortem production and did not play a role in the accident. In addition, metoprolol and diphenhydramine were identified in the pilot's muscle and brain tissue. Metoprolol, a medication for hypertension, is not impairing. Diphenhydramine is a significantly impairing sedating antihistamine; however, without a blood level, no determination could be made as to whether the pilot was impaired by the effects of diphenhydramine at the time of the accident.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain airplane control following a partial loss of engine power during initial climb. The reason for the partial loss of engine power could not be determined due to extensive postimpact damage.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA15FA353
- Event ID
- 20150912X91445
- Case number
- ERA15FA353
- 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: b2ed90d44e9a35b7e1eda86045337ecf4968fb84286b8cb1a820a3d9578683d3; retrieved 2026-09-14T21:30:57.508Z.