CEN18LA237 · Zenith STOL CH701
Zenith STOL CH701 · Accident: loss of engine power (total) on approach
From Maple Lake Municipal Airport (MGG) to Maple Lake Municipal Airport (MGG)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN18LA237
- 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
Zenith STOL CH701
- Aircraft type
- Zenith STOL CH701
- 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
- N736MM
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Maple Lake Municipal Airport (MGG), Maple Lake, MNTo Maple Lake Municipal Airport (MGG), Maple Lake, MN
- Aircraft age
- About 2 years (built 2016)
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern downwind
- 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
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The private pilot and the flight instructor were flying in the airport traffic pattern. The pilot indicated that he smelled a "burnt electrical" smell after takeoff, so they decided to remain in the traffic pattern. After about 10 minutes of flight, the engine began to backfire and then lost total power.
The pilot switched fuel tanks, turned the fuel boost pump on, and attempted a restart of the engine with no success. The pilot reported that he initially decided to attempt a forced landing on the runway. However, he assessed that he would be unable to clear power lines and instead decided to execute a forced landing onto a road. The airplane landed short of the road, impacted a ditch, and came to rest in a grass-covered field. During the forced landing sequence, the nosewheel collapsed, which resulted in substantial damage to the fuselage and engine mount, and the right wing impacted a sign and sustained substantial damage.
Postaccident examination of the airframe and engine revealed no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airframe and engine that would have precluded normal operation. However, the engine would not start after multiple attempts. The origin of the "burnt electrical" smell could not be determined. Fuel was found on board; thus, fuel exhaustion did not occur. The reason for the loss of engine power could not be determined based on the available evidence.
Probable cause
The total loss of engine power for reasons that could not be determined based on the available evidence.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN18LA237
- Event ID
- 20180624X25309
- Case number
- CEN18LA237
- 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: dfa67d6d73c902a1646fdf8ba7c0f9e2ebc61c6c5a555ba3f3dcd506d7290876; retrieved 2026-09-16T07:38:06.308Z.