ERA17LA220 · Nunley KR2
Nunley KR2 · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) during initial climb
From Skypark Estates Owners Assoc Airport (18FD) to Skypark Estates Owners Assoc Airport (18FD)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA17LA220
- 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
Nunley KR2
- Aircraft type
- Nunley KR2
- 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
- N269HJ
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Skypark Estates Owners Assoc Airport (18FD), Baker, FLTo Skypark Estates Owners Assoc Airport (18FD), Baker, FL
- Aircraft age
- Built the same year (2017)
- 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
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The commercial pilot was preparing to fly the experimental amateur-built airplane on a local, Phase 1 test flight. The pilot reported that ground operations were normal, including the engine run-up. Shortly after takeoff, about halfway down the runway, the engine sputtered, hesitated, and then lost partial power. The pilot had passed the point at which he could land the airplane straight ahead on the runway, so he looked for a place to conduct a forced landing. During the forced landing, he turned the airplane to avoid nearby houses and then steepened the turn due to wind that was pushing the airplane left. The airplane subsequently collided with the ground and fragmented into multiple sections. The pilot did not recall the impact sequence due to injuries he sustained during the accident.
The fragmentation of the airframe was consistent with an in-flight loss of airplane control before ground impact. Examination of the engine, including a full disassembly, did not reveal evidence of any preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. The reason for the partial loss of engine power could not be determined.
Probable cause
A partial loss of engine power for reasons that could not be determined because postaccident examination of the engine revealed no evidence of any preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA17LA220
- Event ID
- 20170630X54152
- Case number
- ERA17LA220
- 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: 5b8454e5199c1849512714edfee9960736ad68d34ddd748be77bbfecf3bbf550; retrieved 2026-09-16T05:28:33.170Z.