CHI94LA100 · Cessna 152
Central Missouri State Univ Cessna 152 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Rolla National Airport (VIH) to 9K4 · Warrensburg, MO
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI94LA100
- 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 152
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 152
- 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
- N93679
- Operator
- Central Missouri State Univ
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Rolla National Airport (VIH), VICHY, MOTo 9K4 · Warrensburg, MO
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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, improper use of
- Pilot in command › Planned approach, poor
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE STUDENT SOLO PILOT WAS ON THE THIRD LEG OF A VFR CROSS COUNTRY AFTER A REFUELING STOP. THE NEAREST WEATHER OBSERVATION FACILITY REPORTED TEMPERATURE AS 51 DEGREES F AND DEW POINT AS 23 DEGREES F. THE PILOT REPORTED HAVING EXPERIENCED CARBURETOR ICE INDICATIONS ON THE EARLIER LEGS. AFTER EXPERIENCING A SLIGHT DROP IN ENGINE RPM, CARBURETOR HEAT WAS APPLIED BY THE PILOT, THE ENGINE CONTINUED TO RUN ROUGH AND CARBURETOR HEAT WAS TURNED OFF. WINDS WERE ESTIMATED AT 12 GUSTING TO 20 KNOTS AND THE PILOT STATED THE AIRPLANE WAS BECOMING HARD TO CONTROL. THE PILOT ELECTED TO PERFORM A PRECAUTIONARY LANDING INTO AN UNPREPARED FIELD. ON FINAL APPROACH, CARBURETOR HEAT WAS APPLIED AGAIN, BUT FULL POWER WAS NOT REGAINED. THE AIRPLANE STRUCK TREES AT THE END OF THE FIELD.
Probable cause
improper use of carbureter heat and a poorly planned precautionary landing approach. Factors related to the accident were carburetor icing conditions, the pilot's lack of total experience, trees and anxiety/apprehension.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI94LA100
- Event ID
- 20001206X00864
- Case number
- CHI94LA100
- 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: f55ede8e5968a939bf1c6f6b8873e5de3e4bf3c13e98fa31f359ff6d7693fc88; retrieved 2026-09-21T22:41:53.382Z.