WPR21LA250 · L-Bird LLC CCX-2000
L-Bird LLC CCX-2000 · Accident: loss of engine power (total) during initial climb
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR21LA250
- 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
L-Bird LLC CCX-2000
- Aircraft type
- L Bird CCX-2000
- 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
- N10TA
- Operator
- TACAero
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 2 years (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
- Initial climb
- 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)
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Tree(s)
- 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
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The experimental, amateur-built airplane was retrofitted with an experimental exhaust system that comprised a titanium exhaust header and aluminum muffler. On the first flight with the new exhaust system, the engine lost total power just after takeoff. The pilot performed a forced landing during which the airplane impacted trees, resulting in substantial damage. Examination of the engine revealed that the muffler inner tube failed due to creep fatigue and fractured into several fragments. Components of the muffler included a perforated inner tube, surrounded by fiberglass packing material held in place by five clamps; an outer shell; end caps; and an inlet and exhaust tube, all constructed out of 6061-T6, an aluminum alloy not suited for use above 350°F to 400°F. Any use near or above that temperature will cause additional heat treatment and changes to the properties and performance of the material. The observation of the creep separation indicates that the material was exposed to much higher temperatures than this, likely between 600°F and 1000°F. It is likely that, when exposed to the hot exhaust gasses during takeoff, the fragments, clamps, and fiberglass packing material migrated aft and collapsed the remaining section of the inner tube, which plugged the exhaust port and resulted in a total loss of power. A postaccident test run of the engine without the muffler revealed no anomalies.
Probable cause
The total loss of engine power due to improper construction of the muffler, which resulted in separation of the internal components.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR21LA250
- Event ID
- 20210628103360
- Case number
- WPR21LA250
- 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: f657b49b72d2b6ae74e6410d851be58483ba78986b981acc9b74571a952a7b88; retrieved 2026-09-16T14:13:39.840Z.