Montana COYOTE N125MC

Summary

On 23 July 2020 at about 02:15 local time, a Montana COYOTE registered N125MC was involved in an accident near Jamul, California, United States. 2 people were on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

23 July 2020 at 02:15

Classification

Accident

Location

Jamul, California, United States

Coordinates

32.6892, -116.8005

Aircraft

Montana COYOTE

Registration

N125MC

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Chula Vista → San Diego

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Dusk

NTSB number

WPR20LA234

Nobody was injured.

A total loss of engine power due to an obstructed fuel line and fuel starvation, which resulted in a forced landing and collision with a fence. Contributing to the accident was the long duration of aircraft storage that allowed for contaminants to develop and the design of the fuel system that did not include filtration.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The pilot and passenger flew a local flight, landed, and refueled the airplane. After refueling, they departed and, shortly into the airplane’s climb, encountered various fluctuations in power before the engine lost all power. During the subsequent forced landing, the airplane impacted a fence, which resulted in a collapse of the left main landing gear and substantial damage to the left wing. Postaccident examination of the airplane revealed an obstruction in the fuel line from the airplane’s header tank to the engine. At the time of disassembly, the fitting was completely obstructed with brown/red deposits derived from old/evaporated fuel. The fuel type was not determined. The fuel tanks were not equipped with fuel screens and the header tank did not contain any filter or fuel sump to collect these remnants. This evidence suggests that dried fuel in the wing tanks likely formed the blockage in the fuel fitting when the airplane was operated following 14 years of inactivity, which resulted in fuel starvation and a total loss of engine power.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.