CEN23LA165 · Pipistrel LSA SRL SINUS
Pipistrel LSA SRL SINUS · Accident: powerplant system/component malfunction/failure while taxiing
From an unrecorded airport to Menominee–Marinette Twin County Airport (MNM)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN23LA165
- 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
Pipistrel LSA SRL SINUS
- Aircraft type
- Pipistrel Lsa SRL SINUS
- 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
- N413EK
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Menominee–Marinette Twin County Airport (MNM), Menominee, MI
- Aircraft age
- About 3 years (built 2020)
- 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
- Taxi · into takeoff position
- 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
- Powerplant system/component malfunction/failure
- 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
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot stated the engine lost power as he increased power for takeoff. The engine could not be restarted, and the airplane was pushed off the runway onto a taxiway. The pilot allowed the engine to cool and then restarted the engine. The engine ran smoothly for about one minute. When engine power was increased above 4,000 rpm, the engine lost power again. The pilot performed 2 additional engine starts, which also resulted in the engine quitting above 4,000 rpm. The pilot then noticed white smoke emitting from the engine compartment. A fire ensued that resulted in substantial damage to the motorglider. Postaccident examination of the engine revealed that the right carburetor bowl cover was attached to the carburetor bowl but the carburetor bowl cover retention clip was not in its secure position on the bowl cover. The left carburetor bowl cover was missing and was not recovered; it most likely fell out of the motorglider or was dislodged from the airplane when the fire was being extinguished. An unsecured bowl cover would have allowed fuel to leak onto hot exhaust pipes, resulting in a fire. Neither carburetor had optional carburetor drip trays installed to mitigate the risk of an engine fire from fuel leaking onto the engine exhaust from the carburetors by directing it away from the exhaust and overboard, which may have prevented the accident. Engine logbook entries showed that the carburetor bowl covers were removed during recent maintenance. It is likely that the covers were not properly reinstalled during that maintenance.
Probable cause
The failure of maintenance personnel to properly secure the left carburetor bowl cover, which resulted in an engine fire before takeoff.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN23LA165
- Event ID
- 20230424107115
- Case number
- CEN23LA165
- 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: ca86f865f71ed06ea10567f53d4efff123d198e3fbf4198f54b6225babf7e526; retrieved 2026-09-16T17:32:23.977Z.