LAX93LA280 · Cessna 172N
Cessna 172N · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From Reno Tahoe International Airport (RNO) to Truckee Tahoe Airport (TRK)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX93LA280
- 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 172N
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- 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
- N3090E
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Reno Tahoe International Airport (RNO), Reno, NVTo Truckee Tahoe Airport (TRK), CA
- 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
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE STUDENT PERFORMED A TOUCH AND GO ON RUNWAY 28. DURING THE CLIMB OUT, THE INSTRUCTOR OBSERVED THAT THE ENGINE POWER OUTPUT SEEMED LOW, WITH THE RPM INDICATING ONLY ABOUT 2,000 AND DECREASING. THE INSTRUCTOR STATED THAT THE ENGINE OPERATION WAS SMOOTH, WITH NO APPARENT ROUGHNESS. THE INSTRUCTOR ALSO SAID THAT THE AIRCRAFT WOULD NOT CLEAR THE TREES OFF THE END OF THE RUNWAY AND THERE WAS INSUFFICIENT PAVEMENT LEFT TO AFFECT A LANDING. THE INSTRUCTOR TOOK OVER THE CONTROLS AND LANDED THE AIRCRAFT IN A CLEAR AREA BEYOND THE RUNWAY AND COLLIDED WITH TREES AND ROUGH TERRAIN DURING THE LANDING ROLL OUT. BOTH THE INSTRUCTOR AND THE STUDENT SAID THE CARBURETOR HEAT WAS IN THE OFF POSITION AND THE MIXTURE WAS LEANED TO BEST POWER FOR THE DENSITY ALTITUDE. THE FLAPS WERE FULLY RETRACTED. THE PILOTS SAID THE AIRCRAFT LIFTED OFF AT ABOUT 60 KNOTS AND INCREASED TO ABOUT 65 KNOTS; HOWEVER IT WOULD NOT ACCELERATE BEYOND THAT POINT. DURING THE ENGINE TESTING AND SUBSEQUENT DISASSEMBLY, NO PREIMPACT MECHANICAL FAILURES OR MALFUNCTIONS WERE NOTED.
Probable cause
THE PARTIAL LOSS OF ENGINE POWER DURING THE TAKEOFF INITIAL CLIMB FOR UNDETERMINED REASONS. A FACTOR IN THE ACCIDENT WAS THE UNSUITABLE NATURE OF THE TERRAIN FOR A FORCED LANDING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX93LA280
- Event ID
- 20001211X12946
- Case number
- LAX93LA280
- 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: a29423afae8236a7ceb2fb6313f6bd7d81cb2159c5ef5e05fcbc958af43ac3e7; retrieved 2026-09-23T01:53:58.163Z.