IAD97LA086 · Luscombe LL-8-A
Luscombe LL-8-A · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) while maneuvering
From Severn, MD (no airport) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- IAD97LA086
- 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
Luscombe LL-8-A
- Aircraft type
- Luscombe LL-8
- 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
- N37095
- Operator
- David J Wallace · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Severn, MD (no airport)To 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
- Maneuvering
- 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)
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Fuel system, carburetor › Ice
- Pilot in command › Carburetor heat, not used
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot was performing an aerial survey between 500 and 1,000 feet AGL. As he initiated a turn for the passenger to photograph seagrass, he noted a loss of altitude. He advanced the throttle to increase power, then noted that the engine had lost power. During a forced landing, the airplane struck trees in a wooded area and was damaged. Examination of the airplane revealed 6 to 7 gallons of fuel in the fuel tanks. No water or contamination was found in the fuel system. The temperature and dew point were 82 and 59 degrees, respectively. According to icing probability charts, conditions were conducive for carburetor ice. The carburetor heat control was found in the off position.
Probable cause
the pilot's failure to use carburetor heat, which resulted in accumulation of carburetor ice and subsequent loss of engine power. Related factors were: carburetor icing conditions, and trees in the emergency landing area.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record IAD97LA086
- Event ID
- 20001208X08150
- Case number
- IAD97LA086
- 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: 87c8ecbd318531379ca3eb27932f34a2170fbe35ccf5490102cda2f9aece27bc; retrieved 2026-09-21T21:25:37.005Z.