WPR21FA223 · Vans RV6 A
Vans RV6 A · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) during takeoff
From an unrecorded airport to Sierra Sky Park Airport (E79)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR21FA223
- 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
- 1 · 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
Vans RV6 A
- Aircraft type
- Vans RV6
- 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
- N94PJ
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Sierra Sky Park Airport (E79), Fresno, CA
- Aircraft age
- About 17 years (built 2004)
- 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 (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
- Aircraft › Aircraft power plant
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 departed from his home airport earlier in the day and landed at the accident airport to refuel. The pilot refueled the airplane with about 17.5 gallons and then started the engine. A witness reported the engine start sounded as though it was a “hot start” with the airplane rpm’s immediately accelerating to a near-maximum setting. The airplane then proceeded to take off and, as it climbed, the engine was making “popping” sounds. Surveillance video showed the airplane made a hard right bank, with the wings near perpendicular to the ground, consistent with the pilot attempting to return to the airport. A performance study of the video revealed that when the airplane reached its maximum altitude of about 240 ft, its ground speed had decreased well below the stall speed. The airplane then assumed a wings-level attitude consistent with the pilot correcting for the steep attitude. Thereafter, the airplane rapidly descended in a left-wing-low attitude nearly perpendicular to the terrain before impacting the ground and immediately erupted into flames. Postaccident examination revealed that the keys were out of the ignition and the fuel selector was in the “OFF” position. Given the available evidence it is unknown if the pilot had intentionally chosen to configure the airplane with the selector off.
The engine examination revealed no obvious reason for the loss of engine power as described by the witness. The fuel system was partially destroyed by fire; as a result, the continuity and functionality of the fuel system could not be ascertained.
Probable cause
A loss of engine power for reasons that could not be determined based on available information.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR21FA223
- Event ID
- 20210607103224
- Case number
- WPR21FA223
- 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: 919497146b88f035cca324e73a019d0d351e10d0a264752666ce93988d663b1a; retrieved 2026-09-15T07:29:33.023Z.