CEN17LA065 · Lueck KITFOX 7
Lueck KITFOX 7 · Accident: collision during takeoff/landing
From Yellowstone Regional Airport (COD) to Yellowstone Regional Airport (COD)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN17LA065
- 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
Lueck KITFOX 7
- Aircraft type
- Lueck KITFOX 7
- 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
- N320RJ
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Yellowstone Regional Airport (COD), Cody, WYTo Yellowstone Regional Airport (COD), Cody, WY
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- 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
- Landing · landing roll
- 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
- Collision during takeoff/landing
- 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
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The commercial pilot stated that he had experienced engine roughness during previous flights in the accident airplane. Maintenance personnel determined that the airplane was not receiving adequate fuel at full power, even with both electric fuel pumps operating. As a result, they installed check valves in the fuel system and replaced the fuel pressure regulator. On the day of the accident, the engine experienced a total loss of power after both fuel pumps were turned off during a pre-takeoff engine run-up. The pilot and mechanic then performed another run-up check, during which the engine operated normally. The pilot subsequently departed and entered the airport traffic pattern. While on the downwind leg, with both fuel pumps operating, the pilot reduced engine power and the engine experienced a total loss of power. The pilot performed a forced landing to a field, during which the nose landing gear collapsed.
Postaccident examination of the engine revealed that the fuel pressure and airbox pressure differential was not within the engine manufacturer's limits. The fuel pressure regulator was adjusted within those limits, and the engine was subsequently test run with no anomalies.
Probable cause
Improper maintenance of the fuel pressure regulator, which resulted in an excessive fuel and airbox pressure differential and subsequent loss of engine power.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN17LA065
- Event ID
- 20170103X05521
- Case number
- CEN17LA065
- 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: 226a197a4f6a5d5b93222a1d1e25f54b3178f9c00ec9992e941da056099b4b31; retrieved 2026-09-16T04:55:34.219Z.