CEN19LA091 · Van's Aircraft RV-8
Van's Aircraft RV-8 · Accident: loss of engine power (total) during takeoff
From Horseshoe Bay Resort Airpark (DZB) to Lakeway Airpark (3R9)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN19LA091
- 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
Van's Aircraft RV-8
- Aircraft type
- Van's RV-8
- 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
- N737MC
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Horseshoe Bay Resort Airpark (DZB), Horseshoe Bay, TXTo Lakeway Airpark (3R9), Lakeway, TX
- Aircraft age
- About 17 years (built 2002)
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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 power plant
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that he departed on the multi-leg flight with both tanks filled to capacity, for a total of 43 gallons. The airplane consumed 11 to 12 gallons of fuel during the first leg, then consumed another 11 during the second leg. Shortly after departing on the third leg of the flight, the engine lost total power. The pilot performed a forced landing, during which the airplane sustained substantial damage.
Examination of the airplane revealed that both fuel tanks were breached during the accident; there was no fuel remaining in the tanks, nor was any evidence of fuel present at the site. There were no mechanical anomalies that would have precluded normal operation of the airplane or engine. A fuel flow indicating device displayed 17.8 gallons of fuel remaining and 23.2 gallons of fuel used. The unit depended on the pilot’s input of the fuel onboard before the beginning of the flight.
Based on the pilot’s statement that the airplane’s fuel tanks contained full fuel before the initial takeoff and that the fuel flow device was programmed with the proper amount of fuel, the airplane should have had about 17 gallons of fuel remaining for the last leg of the flight. The reason for the loss of engine power could not be determined based on the available information.
Probable cause
A total loss of engine power for reasons that could not be determined based on the available information.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN19LA091
- Event ID
- 20190218X11440
- Case number
- CEN19LA091
- 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, cause areas. 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: 1fe1841c58611714624ed8cb0474f07d94c689dd504d6929e4ab5471d887162c; retrieved 2026-09-16T08:36:10.300Z.