CEN17LA316 · Navion NAVION G
Skywalker Flight School Navion NAVION G · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) while maneuvering
From Lenawee County Airport (ADG) to Lenawee County Airport (ADG)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN17LA316
- 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
- 0
- 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
Navion NAVION G
- Aircraft type
- Navion G
- 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
- N249KC
- Operator
- Skywalker Flight School
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lenawee County Airport (ADG), Adrian, MITo Lenawee County Airport (ADG), Adrian, MI
- Aircraft age
- About 53 years (built 1964)
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The flight instructor and private pilot had completed training maneuvers and were returning to the airport when the engine experienced a partial loss of power about 1,000 to 1,500 ft above ground level. They were unable to glide the airplane to an open field and descended into a wooded area. The airplane impacted trees and became wedged between trees, suspended above the ground. The engine and empennage separated from the rest of the airplane and came to rest on the ground nearby. The fuel tanks were damaged and most of the remaining fuel spilled onto the ground.
A postaccident examination of the engine revealed no pre-impact anomalies that would have precluded normal operation or production of rated horsepower; however, an examination of the gascolator showed that it had been leaking fuel from three locations and contained a significant amount of debris. In a postaccident examination, the gascolator was subjected to the relevant service bulletin testing and did not pass the test due to the leaking seals and drain valve. Since the gascolator was unable to seal properly, it would have allowed air into the fuel system, which would have resulted in a loss of engine power. A review of the airplane maintenance records revealed no record of compliance with the service bulletin, nor was compliance mandatory.
Probable cause
A leak in the gascolator, which allowed air to enter the fuel system and resulted in a partial loss of engine power.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN17LA316
- Event ID
- 20170814X13131
- Case number
- CEN17LA316
- 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: 5ac0c91bd77939131a323edf95cb73a102c241ca0fb98aad5f4b7134014477ac; retrieved 2026-09-16T05:42:07.603Z.