ERA22LA313 · Whittridge Twinstarr
Whittridge Twinstarr · Accident: fuel starvation during takeoff
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA22LA313
- 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
Whittridge Twinstarr
- Aircraft type
- Whittridge TWINSTARR
- Category
- Gyroplane
- 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
- N298RW
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 16 years (built 2006)
- 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
- Fuel starvation
- 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 systems
- 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 was taking the gyroplane on a short test flight. After adding fuel, the pilot ran the engine multiple times on the ground and completed multiple taxi tests to check the brakes and steering mechanism. The pilot was satisfied that everything was functional and decided to attempt a flight in the airport traffic pattern. Shortly after takeoff the engine lost power. The pilot attempted to return to the airport, but the gyroplane impacted powerlines and the ground, resulting in substantial damage. During a postaccident examination of the wreckage, the pilot found that there was a large piece of debris obstructing a majority of the fuel filter inlet. Another large piece of debris was observed in the fuel tank. All the debris found were consistent in color and texture with silicone sealant used on the fuel quantity sending unit. Based on this information, it is likely that the sealant debris found in the fuel filter inlet obstructed the flow of fuel to the engine and resulted in the total loss of engine power.
Probable cause
A blockage of the fuel filter inlet by a piece of debris, which resulted in fuel starvation and a total loss of engine power.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA22LA313
- Event ID
- 20220715105479
- Case number
- ERA22LA313
- 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: 7ac67f267b3fa7d2a886c2646b6587ec655c0cc14456dbda75eeb6af9367a88e; retrieved 2026-09-16T15:27:39.879Z.