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ERA16LA199 · American Legend Aircraft Co AL3 UNDESIGNAT

31 May 2016 · Elberta, AL, United States

American Legend Aircraft Co AL3 UNDESIGNAT · Accident: loss of engine power (total) during initial climb

From Perdido Winds Airpark (AL08) to Perdido Winds Airpark (AL08)

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Event

NTSB case
ERA16LA199
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

American Legend Aircraft Co AL3 UNDESIGNAT

Aircraft type
American Legend AL3
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
N156WB
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Perdido Winds Airpark (AL08), Elberta, ALTo Perdido Winds Airpark (AL08), Elberta, AL
Aircraft age
About 4 years (built 2012)
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 (total)
Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
Tree(s)
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 sport pilot reported that he had conducted two uneventful touch-and-go landings in the light-sport airplane. After the pilot climbed the airplane to about 200 ft above ground level, the engine lost total power. The pilot tried to turn back to the airport, but the airplane lost altitude and struck some trees about 50 ft short of the runway. The pilot observed fuel "pouring out" of the airplane and shut off the electrical system before exiting the airplane.

During a postaccident test run of the engine at several power settings, the engine performed normally with no anomalies noted. The reason for the loss of engine power could not be determined.

Probable cause

A total loss of engine power for reasons that could not be determined because the engine ran normally during a postaccident engine test run with no anomalies noted.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record ERA16LA199
Event ID
20160601X33411
Case number
ERA16LA199
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: deea155cbc82aff4c4771558b3f946d3e490965c899cd7f230a1e79b5b19940c; retrieved 2026-09-16T03:27:07.694Z.