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Atlas / NTSB / WPR24LA162

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event WPR24LA162

2024-05-27 Somerton, Arizona, United States Airport · 54AZ None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N918LN

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

ZENITH ZODIAC 601 HDS

Year of manufacture

2017 · 7 years old at event

Engine

AMA/EXPR UNKNOWN ENG

Seats / Engines

2 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

20171201

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S ACB56A

Registrant of record

NELSON LAWRENCE K

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot’s inadequate fuel management which resulted in a total loss of engine power due to fuel starvation.

Factual narrative

The pilot of the airplane reported that, during the preflight engine runup, he diverted his attention to a phone call and failed to switch the fuel selector to a fuel tank with adequate fuel. During the initial climb, the engine experienced a complete loss of power, and the pilot performed a forced landing in an agricultural field. The airplane sustained substantial damage to both wings and fuselage. The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. 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).

  • Aircraft-Fluids/misc hardware-Fluids-Fuel-Fluid management
  • Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Use of checklist-Pilot
  • Personnel issues-Psychological-Attention/monitoring-Task monitoring/vigilance-Pilot

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2024_WPR24LA162.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 ↗