CHI97LA081 · Piper PA-28-181
Piper PA-28-181 · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Austin Straubel International Airport (GRB) to Central Wisconsin Airport (CWA)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI97LA081
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-28-181
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N8259M
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Austin Straubel International Airport (GRB), Green Bay, WITo Central Wisconsin Airport (CWA)
- 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 · holding (IFR)
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- Fuel system, carburetor › Ice
- Pilot in command(cfi) › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The dual student stated that they were holding in instrument meteorological conditions at 4,000 feet mean sea level (msl) when Minneapolis air route traffic control center (ARTCC) cleared them for the approach. ' We were told overfly the airport at 4,000 feet on the localizer back course and then intercept the ILS. As I left the holding pattern, the engine shook violently for 2 to 3 seconds, followed by complete engine failure. I established a glide and declared an emergency with ARTCC.' The pilots attempted to restart the engine. The airplane broke out of the clouds at approximately 500 feet above the ground and over a forest. The dual student said, 'I looked for the least dense area and headed for that site. We began encountering the trees just as I was attempting to stall the plane. We came to rest in a wooded, swampy area.' Examination of the wreckage revealed no anomalies. According to Department of Transportation/FAA/CT-82/44 Publication: Light Aircraft Piston Engine Carburetor Ice Detector/Warning Device Sensitivity/Effectiveness, June 1982, Carburetor Icing Probability Chart; the temperature (21 degrees Fahrenheit) and dew point (16 degrees Fahrenheit) at the time the airplane lost power places the probability for carburetor icing in the 'icing - glide and cruise power' area of the chart.
Probable cause
The formation of carburetor ice and the instructor pilot's failure to recognize conditions leading to carburetor icing and to take appropriate preventative action. Factors relating to this accident were the late application of carburetor heat, the icing conditions and snow.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI97LA081
- Event ID
- 20001208X07504
- Case number
- CHI97LA081
- 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: 3a681942d19a0bc06f8a4aea28601dfc32d9312995452ec82b00d6ac9cc17502; retrieved 2026-09-22T20:15:30.881Z.