CEN16LA296 · Ryan NAVION B
Ryan NAVION B · Accident: loss of engine power (total) during initial climb
From Manitowoc County Airport (MTW) to Manitowoc County Airport (MTW)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN16LA296
- 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
Ryan NAVION B
- Aircraft type
- Ryan NAVION
- 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
- N5294K
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Manitowoc County Airport (MTW), Manitowoc, WITo Manitowoc County Airport (MTW), Manitowoc, WI
- Aircraft age
- About 66 years (built 1950)
- 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)
- 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 systems
- Aircraft › Fluids/miscellaneous hardware
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to the private pilot, the engine run-up, taxi to the runway, and takeoff were normal. After establishing a positive climb rate, the pilot retracted the landing gear. Shortly after the gear retraction, the engine lost total power. The pilot quickly tried to restart the engine without success and then conducted a forced landing on the remaining runway. The airplane impacted the side of the runway and came to rest upright.
An examination of the engine revealed no anomalies. No fuel was found in the fuel lines from the firewall to the engine fuel system components. The fuel selector valve and gascolator were removed for further examination and testing. A vacuum test of the fuel selector valve revealed no anomalies. The gascolator exhibited fuel staining on the top of the casting. A vacuum test of the gascolator revealed that it leaked severely due to degraded rubber gaskets. It is likely that the leaks in the gascolator allowed air to enter the fuel system and resulted in the loss of engine power. The pilot stated that he typically needed to use the electric fuel boost pump in the low position to keep the engine running smoothly during the run-up and taxi until the engine reached normal operating temperature, which was contrary to the airplane checklist that was provided by the pilot.
Probable cause
A leak in the gascolator due to degraded rubber gaskets, which allowed air to enter the fuel system and resulted in fuel starvation and a total loss of engine power during takeoff.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN16LA296
- Event ID
- 20160802X94830
- Case number
- CEN16LA296
- 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: 0a71b0f7580931c34d1e02dbc2ffc4d4daf51b8d32a10436bba2d5894a63ba1e; retrieved 2026-09-16T03:45:11.759Z.