ERA21LA288 · de Havilland Canada DHC-1 CHIPMUNK X
de Havilland Canada DHC-1 CHIPMUNK X · Accident: loss of engine power (total) during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Lebanon Municipal Airport (M54)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA21LA288
- 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
- 0
- 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
de Havilland Canada DHC-1 CHIPMUNK X
- Aircraft type
- de Havilland DHC-1
- 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
- N47YC
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Lebanon Municipal Airport (M54), Lebanon, TN
- Aircraft age
- About 71 years (built 1950)
- 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)
- 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, before departure, the right tank was half full, the left tank was full, and that he took off with the fuel selector set to the left tank. The pilot reported that, during the initial climb, the airplane’s engine suddenly lost power. He maneuvered the airplane for a forced landing, and it impacted trees and terrain before coming to a stop. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage and both wings, and the pilot was seriously injured.
An examination of the fuel system and engine did not reveal evidence of a preexisting mechanical malfunction or failure. The cockpit fuel selector handle was found in the right tank position. The right fuel tank was ruptured during the impact sequence and contained no fuel. The left tank, which the pilot reported that he was using at the time of the loss of engine power, held an adequate amount of fuel. Fuel was found in the line from the fuel pumps to the carburetor. The reason for the sudden loss of engine power could not be determined based on the available evidence.
Probable cause
A total loss of engine power during the initial climb 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 ERA21LA288
- Event ID
- 20210715103485
- Case number
- ERA21LA288
- 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: 83750e44efa6d8ec7cd0b322b633c0f8ba85c83afff08519307b398378b56af0; retrieved 2026-09-16T14:17:37.599Z.