FTW98LA054 · Cessna 150M
Cessna 150M · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Roswell Air Center Airport (ROW) to Double Eagle II Airport (AEG)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW98LA054
- 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 150M
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 150
- 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
- N714MN
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Roswell Air Center Airport (ROW), Roswell, NMTo Double Eagle II Airport (AEG), Albuquerque, NM
- 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 · cruise
- 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)
- 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
- Wire, transmission
- 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
- Terrain condition › None suitable
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Tajique, NM, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
The pilot departed Albuquerque about 2100 and flew to Roswell, encountering scattered clouds at approximately 9,000 feet msl. During the return trip, while flying over the Manzano mountains, 'his engine began to sputter.' He applied full carburetor heat and turned back towards a 'small lighted town in the hopes of finding a field or road to land on.' He said that, while on final approach to a field, 'he hit a transmission wire with his left wing.' He landed the airplane but, during the landing roll, impacted a fence and a woodpile. The pilot stated that he had obtained weather briefings at the beginning of both legs of his trip. Evaluation of the weather revealed that he was flying in an area of probable carburetor icing. CAR3 (aircraft certification requirements) could not be achieved while this airplane was flying at an altitude of 11,500 feet. The engine was functionally tested, and according to the manufacturer, the engine's 'start up was immediate and the engine ran smoothly.'
Probable cause
The loss of engine power due to carburetor ice. Factors included unsuitable terrain, and dark night conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW98LA054
- Event ID
- 20001208X09180
- Case number
- FTW98LA054
- 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: ce83f7f7de1a00e50567cb5925306ae41acfec74a19430b702bf016baf9a163e; retrieved 2026-09-22T18:11:42.310Z.