WPR26LA153 · Republic RC-3
Republic RC-3 · Accident: loss of engine power (total) en route
From Hangar Haciendas Airpark (AZ90) to an unrecorded destination
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's injuries. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR26LA153
- 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
- Ongoing
- 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
Republic RC-3
- Aircraft type
- Republic RC-3
- 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
- N6518K
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hangar Haciendas Airpark (AZ90), Laveen, AZTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 79 years (built 1947)
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
On April 12, 2026, about 1423 mountain standard time, a Republic RC-3 airplane, N6518K, was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident near Phoenix, Arizona. The pilot and two passengers were not injured. The amphibious airplane was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 personal flight. The pilot reported that he departed Hangar Haciendas Airport (AZ90) Laveen, Arizona with two passengers onboard for a local flight. While enroute at an altitude of about 2,500 mean sea level, travelling toward Camelback Mountain, the propeller rpm began to overspeed. The pilot attempted to lower the propeller rpm, but the engine and propeller did not respond. Shortly after, smoke was observed coming out of the left side of the engine cowling and the engine lost all power. The pilot executed a gear-up forced landing on a road, which resulted in substantial damage to the fuselage keel hull underside. During the landing sequence, the left wing contacted a water backflow valve, damaging the leading edge of the left wing and the left wing sponson. Postaccident examination revealed the engine’s right-side exhaust tail pipe had separated from the exhaust manifold. The examination also found thermal damage and fractures to an aluminum panel, the air intake ducting for the carburetor, the fuel delivery line to the carburetor, and electrical wiring including both magneto P-leads. The airplane was retained for further examination.
Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR26LA153
- Event ID
- 20260413202804
- Case number
- WPR26LA153
- 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. 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: 1c13eba568ad63e4496928233fe6252a46a77017e183fd3eed34cd6120ab3991; retrieved 2026-09-16T21:12:50.918Z.