CHI97LA157 · Cessna A188B
Kratz Aerial Ag Service Cessna A188B · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From Swenson Airport (ND29) to Swenson Airport (ND29)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI97LA157
- 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 A188B
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 188
- 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
- N8293G
- Operator
- Kratz Aerial Ag Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Swenson Airport (ND29)To Swenson Airport (ND29)
- 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 137: Agricultural
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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 › Load jettison, not performed
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During the initial climbout the pilot noticed a developing power loss and was unable to maintain both airspeed and altitude. The pilot performed a forced landing in a cornfield. The airplane then nose over, coming to rest inverted. The owner of the spraying company, said 'I think he [the pilot] was operating behind the power curve, that's what it looks like to me.' The pilot did not jettison the load during the accident sequence. Examination of the aircraft's engine showed there was evidence of a leak in the engine driven fuel pump. Further bench testing showed the leak did not hinder positive fuel pressure to the cylinders. No other engine anomalies were found. The pilot was operating the airplane approximately 30 pounds over the specified max gross weight as determined in the Pilot's Operating Handbook.
Probable cause
a loss of engine power for undetermined reasons and the pilot's failure to jettison the load. Factors involved were the exceeded weight and balance limits, and the pilot's inadequate preflight planning and preparation.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI97LA157
- Event ID
- 20001208X08074
- Case number
- CHI97LA157
- 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 1997-06-05.
- API snapshot SHA-256: fff1d6427f1aa87403d5d0e98c592c3011c975c563f5126cb05aaf3e7e644ed4; retrieved 2026-09-22T19:30:09.637Z.