Skip to content

DEN90LA097

1990-04-21 · GRAND FORKS, North Dakota, United States · Minor · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport GFK

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

AN OVER TEMPERATURE OF THE INLET FUEL LINE RESULTING IN FUEL STARVATION (VAPOR LOCK) IN THE FUEL INJECTION SYSTEM. A FACTOR IN THE ACCIDENT WAS THE LACK OF A SUITABLE LANDING AREA.

Factual narrative

N64UV SUSTAINED SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGE DURING AN EMERGENCY LANDING, IN A FIELD NEAR THE GRAND FORKS INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, NORTH DAKOTA. DURING FINAL APPROACH TO LANDING, THE AIRCRAFT ENGINE SUDDENLY STOPPED. THE INSTRUCTOR TOOK OVER THE CONTROLS. HE SAID THE ENGINE DID NOT RESTART AND HE WAS FORCED TO LAND ON AN UNSUITABLE LANDING SURFACE. DURING THE LANDING ROLL THE AIRCRAFT NOSED OVER. INSPECTION OF THE ENGINE INDICATED THAT THE POER LOSS WAS DUE TO VAPOR LOCK IN THE INLET FUEL LINE TO THE ELECTRIC BOOST PUMP. SUBSEQUENT ENGINE TEST RUN WAS SUCCESSFUL. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1990_DEN90LA097.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Search this event elsewhere

External sources are reported, not agency: signal that something happened, not fact about what happened.

Related research

Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (fuel starvation). All research papers