MIA99LA135 · Cessna 150M
Cessna 150M · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Winter Haven Regional Airport - Gilbert Field (GIF) to Merritt Island Airport (COI)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's injuries. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA99LA135
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Cessna 150M
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 150
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N66560
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Winter Haven Regional Airport - Gilbert Field (GIF), Winter Park, FLTo Merritt Island Airport (COI), Merritt Island, FL
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- En route · cruise
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Tree(s)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Carburetor heat, not used
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The student pilot stated he was nearing his destination on the first leg of his solo cross-country, still in cruise flight, when the engine suddenly lost power. He stated that he performed the procedures for engine failure, but does not remember using carburetor heat. He did not regain engine power, and was forced to make an emergency landing in a residential area, sustaining minor injuries and substantially damaging the airplane. Examination of the aircraft, engine, fuel system, and all components by an FAA inspector revealed no failures or malfunctions. The temperature and dew point reported by a station 15 miles from the accident would have put this flight within the region labeled, 'visible icing at glide and cruise power' using carburetor icing probability charts.
Probable cause
A total loss of engine power while in cruise flight due to the pilot's failure to use carburetor heat during carburetor icing conditions and the subsequent emergency landing to unsuitable terrain and collision with a tree.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA99LA135
- Event ID
- 20001205X00536
- Case number
- MIA99LA135
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: fcdd994b1f22b9df4b129be97908dc4be06954d7310c17628f89225d111f2a0b; retrieved 2026-09-21T11:08:35.058Z.