MIA97LA039 · Wiedemann KIT FOX
Wiedemann KIT FOX · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From Prattville - Grouby Field (1A9) to Keesler Air Force Base (BIX)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA97LA039
- 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
Wiedemann KIT FOX
- Aircraft type
- Wiedemann KIT FOX
- 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
- N19VX
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Prattville - Grouby Field (1A9), Prattville, ALTo Keesler Air Force Base (BIX), Biloxi, MS
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Stall
- 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 › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
- Throttle/power lever, cable › Improper
- Throttle/power lever, cable › Loose
- Unknown › Maintenance, installation, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot stated that after takeoff, he made a normal climb to 700 feet msl (about 500 feet agl) and turned to a crosswind. At 900 feet msl, he noted a decrease in power, and the engine rpm dropped to about 1,000 rpm. He adjusted the mixture and turned the carburetor heat on, but the airplane would not sustain flight. The pilot initiated a forced landing in an open field with soft terrain, and aligned his approach to furrows in the field. However, according to an FAA inspector, who examined the accident site, there were indications that the airplane impacted the ground in a nose down, left-wing low attitude. The airplane then nosed over and came to rest inverted. Examination of the engine revealed that an Adel clamp, which held the throttle cable in place, was not correctly installed. The rubber bushing was reversed with the split to the inside. The clamp had loosened and would not hold the throttle cable housing, preventing throttle control.
Probable cause
improper installation of a throttle cable clamp by an unknown person, resulting in a loose throttle cable housing and an inability to control the throttle position; and failure of the pilot to maintain adequate airspeed during an approach for an emergency (forced) landing, which resulted in a stall and collision with the terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA97LA039
- Event ID
- 20001208X07214
- Case number
- MIA97LA039
- 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: ce4702565fd5f255d543b2deab54866630a86ed9683aa4f8796d4d58491a2d83; retrieved 2026-09-22T20:37:19.484Z.