Van's RV9 N20YY

Summary

On 4 June 2021 at about 22:45 local time, a Van's RV9 registered N20YY was involved in an accident near West Portsmouth, Ohio, United States. 2 people were on board and one had minor injuries. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

4 June 2021 at 22:45

Classification

Accident

Location

West Portsmouth, Ohio, United States

Coordinates

38.7915, -83.0144

Aircraft

Van's RV9

Registration

N20YY

Category

Airplane

Year built

2006

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Portsmouth → Flemingsburg

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

CEN21LA250

1 person had minor injuries.

The pilot’s improper use of the airplane’s fuel system, which resulted in a total loss of engine power due to fuel starvation.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The pilot reported he’d taken off and was about 10 minutes from the airport when the airplane’s engine lost power and began to descend. The pilot misdiagnosed the power loss as an electronic ignition problem and troubleshot it as such. However, after turning on the electric fuel pump and switching fuel tanks several times, the pilot was unable to restore engine power and elected to perform a forced landing to a field. During the forced landing the airplane nosed over and came to rest inverted. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the rudder. Federal Aviation Administration inspectors reported that during a postaccident examination of the airplane the right fuel tank was empty, and the left fuel tank had about 4 gallons of fuel. The fuel selector had the right fuel tank selected. No other mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane were found that would have precluded normal operations. The pilot reported he spoke with the previous owner and was unaware that when switching fuel tanks, it could take about 10 seconds for the new tank to pick up fuel. The pilot reported that he had never run a fuel tank empty and was not familiar with how the engine would respond, and how long it would take for fuel to return to the engine when another fuel tank was selected.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.