Brown Benjamin C CHALLENGER II N2480Y

Summary

On 1 September 2023 at about 13:10 local time, a Brown Benjamin C CHALLENGER II registered N2480Y was involved in an accident near Moultonborough, New Hampshire, United States. One person was 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

1 September 2023 at 13:10

Classification

Accident

Location

Moultonborough, New Hampshire, United States

Nearest airport

Moultonborough (4MB)

Coordinates

43.7554, -71.4186

Aircraft

Brown Benjamin C CHALLENGER II

Registration

N2480Y

Category

Airplane

Year built

1996

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

ERA23LA360

Nobody was injured.

A loss of engine power due to a loss of compression in one of the engine’s two cylinders.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The pilot reported that a few minutes after takeoff, during the initial climb, the airplane’s two-stroke engine began to slowly lose power. The pilot attempted to restart the engine but was unsuccessful. He elected to make a forced landing in small field, resulting in substantial damage to both of the airplane’s wing struts. Postaccident examination of the engine revealed that one of the engine’s two cylinders had no compression. It is likely that this lack of compression resulted in the loss of engine power reported by the pilot during the accident flight. Additionally, during the examination, a zip tie was found secured around the fuel line that provided fuel for that cylinder in a way that reduced its interior diameter. It is possible that the reduced diameter of the fuel line could have resulted in less fuel reaching the cylinder during high power operation, and that it was operating in an excessively lean condition. Operation in this state could have damaged the cylinder and resulted in the lack of compression observed during the engine examination. It could not be determined when the zip-tie was installed on the fuel line, though entries in the airplane’s maintenance logs indicated that its last condition inspection was completed about three months before the accident.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.