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Atlas / NTSB / CEN12CA075

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event CEN12CA075

2011-11-19 Denver, Colorado, United States Airport · APA None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N80775

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

GLOBE GC-1B

Year of manufacture

1946 · 65 years old at event

Engine

LYCOMING 0-360-A1D (180 hp)

Seats / Engines

2 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19880517

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S AAFF49

Registrant of record

SIERRA BRAVO LLC

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

A loss of engine power due to fuel starvation as a result of a loose fuel line fitting.

Factual narrative

The pilot stated the engine began to gradually lose power shortly after takeoff and he could smell raw fuel. As the pilot turned back to the airport, the engine stopped running and he made a forced landing to a muddy field short of the runway. During the landing, the airplane nosed over and the vertical stabilizer was bent. A postaccident examination of the engine revealed a fitting that secured the main fuel line to the engine was loose and leaking fuel. The pilot stated that the engine began to gradually lose power shortly after takeoff and that he could smell raw fuel. As the pilot turned back to the airport, the engine stopped running, and he made a forced landing to a field short of the runway. During the landing, the airplane nosed over and the vertical stabilizer was bent. A postaccident examination of the engine revealed a fitting that secured the main fuel line to the engine was loose and leaking fuel. The interruption of fuel was enough to cause the loss of engine power. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12

NTSB Findings

Hierarchical cause / factor breakdown from the FAA bulk avdata database. Each finding tagged C (Cause) or F (Factor).

  • C Aircraft-Aircraft systems-Fuel system-(general)-Malfunction - C
  • C Aircraft-Aircraft power plant-Engine (reciprocating)-(general)-Failure - C

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2011_CEN12CA075.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Related research

What the literature says.

Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (fuel starvation). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.

Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗