ERA21FA308 · Ryan NAVION A
Anthem Towels Ryan NAVION A · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) during initial climb
From Roscoe Field (82J) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA21FA308
- 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
Ryan NAVION A
- Aircraft type
- Ryan NAVION
- 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
- N114ST
- Operator
- Anthem Towels
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Roscoe Field (82J), Pensacola, FLTo not recorded
- 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 (partial)
- 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
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airline transport pilot and two passengers were departing from the pilot’s home airport for a cross-country flight. According to the pilot, the weather was hot, so he was expecting the takeoff roll to be longer than normal, about 2,000 to 2,500 ft of the 3,225 ft runway. The density altitude was computed to be about 2,300 ft, and the airport elevation was 32 ft. After the preflight inspection and engine runup, which the pilot stated were normal, he commenced the takeoff roll. The pilot stated that shortly after rotating, beginning the initial climb, and retracting the landing gear, the engine rpm decreased from about 2,600 to 2,300 rpm, and the airplane was unable to maintain altitude in level flight. As a result, he maneuvered for an off-airport forced landing, during which the airplane impacted a tree and a security fence. A postcrash fire ensued, resulting in significant thermal damage to the engine and its components. Witnesses described that during the takeoff the airplane appeared slow, used more runway than normal for takeoff, and lifted off near the end of the runway. Additionally, a witness reported that the engine sounded “a little rough.” Postaccident examination of the wreckage, which included a complete engine disassembly, revealed no evidence of any preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. As a result, the reason for the partial loss of engine power could not be determined from the available evidence.
Probable cause
A partial loss of engine power during the initial climb, which resulted in a forced, off-airport landing and impact with trees and a fence.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA21FA308
- Event ID
- 20210729103582
- Case number
- ERA21FA308
- 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: 186a4ebfab38cc079122aba642b8b7cc71c9616f3270ee8d2af1e9b18fedcd1a; retrieved 2026-09-16T14:20:53.955Z.