Van's RV 6 N711KJ

Summary

On 25 December 2018 at about 16:48 local time, a Van's RV 6 registered N711KJ was involved in an accident near Watkins, Colorado, United States. One person was on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was destroyed. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

25 December 2018 at 16:48

Classification

Accident

Location

Watkins, Colorado, United States

Nearest airport

Colorado Air and Space Port (CFO)

Coordinates

39.7842, -104.5376

Aircraft

Van's RV 6

Registration

N711KJ

Category

Airplane

Year built

1993

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Aircraft damage

Destroyed

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

CEN19LA048

Nobody was injured.

The pilot’s failure to apply adequate torque to a fuel line during recent maintenance, which allowed the line to loosen in flight and fuel to enter the hot engine compartment and resulted in an in-flight fire that consumed the airplane.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

The pilot reported that he’d been conducting touch-and-go landings in the traffic pattern. During initial climb for the second touch-and-go landing and once the airplane reached between about 200 and 300 ft above ground level, he smelled an unusual odor and noticed flames coming from the floor forward of his rudder pedals. The pilot added that he “immediately rejected the takeoff” and declared an emergency. He then landed the airplane on the departure runway, exited the runway onto a taxiway, and then stopped the airplane. The pilot subsequently turned off the fuel valve, shut down the engine by pulling the mixture to full lean, turned off the fuel valve and electrical power switches, and then exited the airplane. A postcrash fire ensued, which consumed the airplane. The pilot stated that he had installed all new fuel lines about 1 month or 1.5 flight hours before the accident flight. Postaccident engine examination revealed that all four fuel lines exhibited thermal damage and soot on their exteriors, consistent with exposure to fire. An end of one of the fuel lines had soot deposits in the first three threads of the line’s attachment fitting. If the fuel line had been secured at the time of the fire, no soot deposits would have been inside the threaded fitting. Therefore, it is likely that the fuel line loosened during flight due to the pilot’s failure to apply adequate torque to the line during installation, which allowed fuel to enter the hot engine compartment and led to an in-flight fire that consumed the airplane.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.