WPR21LA002 · Zenith CH601 XL
Zenith CH601 XL · Accident: loss of engine power (total) on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR21LA002
- 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
- Event fatalities
- Unknown
- 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 CH601 XL
- Aircraft type
- Zenith CH601
- 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
- N601SA
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 1 year (built 2019)
- 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 base
- 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 oper/perf/capability
- Aircraft › Fluids/miscellaneous hardware
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot of the experimental, amateur-built airplane reported that he remained in the airport traffic pattern after departure and, while turning from base to final during landing, the engine lost total power. The airplane impacted terrain short of the runway and sustained substantial damage to the fuselage. The pilot provided conflicting statements regarding which fuel tank was selected at the time of the accident, and also drained fuel from the tanks before the airplane was examined; therefore, the amount of fuel onboard at the time of the accident was not determined. Examination of the fuel system confirmed continuity from each tank to the fuel selector. The exterior of the gascolator exhibited a green film that saturated the fuel line from the gascolator to the engine-driven fuel pump. The fuel line from the gascolator to the carburetor was disconnected and purged. With the fuel selector in the right tank position, no fuel could be extracted from the fuel line. With the fuel selector in the left tank position, about 1 pint of a lime green-colored substance was purged from the fuel line. Examination of the throttle body also revealed the presence of the lime green substance. The liquid was consistent with 100LL aviation fuel; however, the lead content was higher than specification, which may have been the result of a lead-scavenging additive that the pilot used. The reason for its abnormal color could not be determined with the sample amount available. The wreckage was released to the pilot, who reported that he tested the ignition system and suggested that a coil selector anomaly may have resulted in the loss of power. However, his test was incomplete and unconfirmed. The reason for the loss of engine power could not be determined based on available evidence.
Probable cause
The 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 WPR21LA002
- Event ID
- 20201002102072
- Case number
- WPR21LA002
- 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, 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: 90a1726ca2fb246d1b9544068befb6ba4fa881c6e293b3ba7ccca181541116f8; retrieved 2026-09-16T13:09:47.913Z.