LAX98LA244 · Bellanca BL-17
Bellanca BL-17 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Boise Air Terminal/Gowen Field (BOI) to Winnemucca Municipal Airport (WMC)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX98LA244
- 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
Bellanca BL-17
- Aircraft type
- Bellanca BL-17
- 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
- N14692
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Boise Air Terminal/Gowen Field (BOI), Boise, IDTo Winnemucca Municipal Airport (WMC)
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Throttle/power lever, linkage › Incorrect
- Throttle/power lever, linkage › Not safetied
- Throttle/power lever, linkage › Separation
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane had been on a cross-country flight, which was terminating at the accident airport. The airplane had undergone an annual inspection 3 weeks prior to the accident with no discrepancies noted. After reaching the accident airport environment, the pilot retarded the throttle and noted the airspeed was 120 knots with a loss of manifold pressure. The engine continued to run, but was not producing power. The landing gear is self-activating, and when the airplane slows below 105 knots indicated and the throttle is less than half full, the landing gear will automatically extend. A safety mechanism is in place, so if the throttle is full forward and the airspeed drops below 105 knots, the gear will not extend. The pilot contacted the tower to inform them of her situation, and that she would be able to make the airport with no further problems. Simultaneously, the airspeed fell below 105 knots and the landing gear extended with the throttle in the full forward position. When the airspeed fell below 80 knots, the pilot knew she was not going to clear the railroad tracks and power lines. She made a shallow left turn to fly underneath the power lines and attempted a forced landing on a road. Examination of the airplane revealed that the throttle cable rod end had separated from the throttle body attach point disconnecting the linkage between the throttle and engine. It was noted that the cotter key and jam nut were missing from the assembly and were unable to be located. Further investigation revealed that the throttle cable assembly had been replaced 7 months prior to the accident. It was also noted that the assembly was not from the manufacturer, but is widely used in the industry. The manufacturer reported that they do not authorize any substitutions of their parts.
Probable cause
Loss of engine power due to a missing cotter key and jam nut, the use of an improper nonapproved part by other maintenance personnel, and failure to safety the installation which subsequently lead to a throttle/carburetor linkage disconnect.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX98LA244
- Event ID
- 20001211X10642
- Case number
- LAX98LA244
- 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: 1ec8c5bd522f83a47170584f582bc0bf510a6f8c56ee1d8d527b08d536d6254b; retrieved 2026-09-21T20:44:30.442Z.