FTW93LA191 · Cessna 150L
Horizon Aviation Cessna 150L · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From David Wayne Hooks Memorial Airport (DWH) to Easterwood Field (CLL)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW93LA191
- 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 150L
- 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
- N11069
- Operator
- Horizon Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From David Wayne Hooks Memorial Airport (DWH), Spring, TXTo Easterwood Field (CLL), College Station, TX
- 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
- Ignition system, ignition coil › Loose
- Ignition system, magneto › Fluctuating
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING THE SOLO CROSS COUNTRY FLIGHT WITH REPORTED HAZE, THE STUDENT PILOT HAD DESCENDED TO 2,000 FEET MSL TO REMAIN BELOW THE CLOUDS. THE ENGINE STARTED RUNNING ROUGH AND THE AIRPLANE WOULD NOT MAINTAIN ALTITUDE. THE STUDENT PILOT MADE A FORCED LANDING INTO A FIELD. DURING THE LANDING ROLL, THE AIRPLANE IMPACTED A FENCE, AND FENCE POST, AND CAME TO REST NOSE DOWN. AN EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE AND ACCESSORIES REVEALED THAT THE LEFT MAGNETO WAS NOT FIRING AT TIMES AND OTHER TIMES WOULD FIRE IN A RANDOM SEQUENCE. AN INTERNAL EXAMINATION OF THE LEFT MAGNETO REVEALED THAT THE COILS WERE LOOSE
Probable cause
PARTIAL POWER LOSS DUE TO LEFT MAGNETO FLUCTUATING DUE TO LOOSE COIL. A FACTOR WAS THE LACK OF SUITABLE TERRAIN FOR THE FORCED LANDING
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW93LA191
- Event ID
- 20001211X12623
- Case number
- FTW93LA191
- 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: e39e1bdcdf5d343a039c8fc677ad16fe7bbb804e9acd5f55cd8e5ff2bf9f0d8b; retrieved 2026-09-21T22:55:22.447Z.