CHI94LA308 · Thalman THORP T-18
Thalman THORP T-18 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI94LA308
- 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
Thalman THORP T-18
- Aircraft type
- Thalman THORP T-18
- 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
- N2911
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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)
- 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 · Estimated position: the centre of Kenosha, WI, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE AMATEUR BUILT AIRPLANE LOST ENGINE POWER SHORTLY AFTER LIFTOFF. THE PILOT WAS ABLE TO LAND THE AIRPLANE ON THE LAST 400' FEET OF RUNWAY, BUT WAS UNABLE TO STOP THE AIRPLANE BEFORE IT RAN OFF THE END AND NOSED-OVER. POSTACCIDENT EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE AND AIRFRAME DISCOVERED NO PREIMPACT ANOMALIES. THE ENGINE WAS STARTED AND ACCELERATED TO A STATIC RPM OF 2200 WITH NO OBSERVED DEFICIENCIES. FIFTEEN MINUTES PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT, A WEATHER REPORTING STATION 13 MILES SOUTH OF THE ACCIDENT SITE RECORDED A TEMPERATURE OF 50 DEGREES F., AND A DEWPOINT OF 47 DEGREES F. THIS TEMPERATURE/DEWPOINT COMBINATION FALLS IN THE SERIOUS ICING CATEGORY ON A CARBURETOR ICING PROBABILITY CHART. THE PILOT REPORTED HE DID NOT HAVE TIME TO ATTEMPT AN ENGINE RESTART OR TO USE THE CARBURETOR HEAT CONTROL AFTER THE ENGINE LOST POWER.
Probable cause
the pilot's failure to use carburetor heat in carburetor icing conditions. A factor associated with the accident is the prevailing carburetor icing conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI94LA308
- Event ID
- 20001206X02194
- Case number
- CHI94LA308
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1994-09-02.
- API snapshot SHA-256: ab388353eaa6f2f8a55c790961bd117fa581ba12b30d837b2379697ad27c36d3; retrieved 2026-09-23T00:43:31.498Z.