According to the pilot, during the initial climb for the personal flight, when the North American T6 was about 150 to 250 feet above the ground near Naples, Florida, the engine lost all power.
He lowered the landing gear, maintained flying airspeed, and then landed the airplane in the grass right of the runway.
The airplane subsequently hit a runway distance remaining sign and came to a stop.
The pilot reported that there were 113 gallons of fuel on board the airplane at takeoff, and post-accident examination revealed that there was an adequate supply of fuel in the fuel tanks.
However, during examination of the engine fuel system components, no fuel was found in the fuel line from the outlet of the mechanical fuel pump to the fuel flow transducer nor at the carburetor inlet fitting, consistent with fuel starvation.
Further examination of the engine and remaining components of the fuel system revealed no evidence of a mechanical malfunction or failure, and the reason for the fuel interruption to the engine could not be determined.
The National Transportation Safety Board determined the probable cause as the total loss of engine power during the initial climb due to fuel starvation for reasons that could not be determined because postaccident examinations of the airframe and engine fuel system components revealed no evidence of a mechanical malfunction or failure.
NTSB Identification: ERA15LA030
This October 2014 accident report is provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. Published as an educational tool, it is intended to help pilots learn from the misfortunes of others.
Poor headline……………… GRAVITY is what brought this aircraft back to earth…. the loss of fuel to the engine allowed the PIC to exercise their PIC authority to violate any regulation to save their bacon…. but again POOR HEADLINE………. these types of headlines do not help any aviator ………..
Not this again!
Wore out fuel selector valves are prevalent in most old GA aircraft as flows over to the War birds too. Then internal works of those valves need to be tested more than 20 years apart. Pilot is lucky that he was able to make a good landing. Need to keep those T-6s around.
The airworthiness field notes in the Docket include the following observation about the fuel selector: “Inspection of the forward seat fuel selector valve revealed it was between detents; the fuel selector handle was noted to move freely.”
That suggests another answer, other than ‘Undetermined’ for the fuel starvation problem experienced at 200′ AGL.