NYC92LA071 · Cessna 140
Cessna 140 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Meriden Markham Municipal Airport (MMK) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC92LA071
- 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 140
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 140
- 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
- N3047N
- Operator
- Robert E. Martin, JR · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Meriden Markham Municipal Airport (MMK), Meriden, CTTo 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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)
- 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
- Pilot in command › Carburetor heat, improper use of
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Palmer, MA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRPLANE WAS ON FINAL APPROACH AND THE PILOT ADDED POWER BECAUSE HE SAW HE WOULD BE LANDING SHORT OF THE RUNWAY. THERE WAS NO ENGINE RESPONSE TO THE THROTTLE MOVEMENT AND THE AIRPLANE LANDED 500 FT SHORT OF THE RUNWAY IN A MUDDY AREA AND FLIPPED OVER. THE ENGINE WAS RUN ON THE AIRPLANE AFTER THE ACCIDENT AND NO DISCREPANCIES WERE NOTED. THE TEMPERATURE AND DEWPOINT 20 MILES TO THE EAST WAS RECORDD AS 43 F AND 32 F. ACCORDING TO THE FAA CARBURETOR ICING CHART, THE RECORDED TEMPERATURE AND DEWPOINT WAS CONDUCIVE TO SERIOUS CARBURETOR ICING. WHEN INTERVIEWED THE PILOT SAID HE USED CARBURETOR HEAT ON APPROACH; HOWEVER, HE WAS NOT AWARE OF THE TEMPERATURE/DEWPOINT SPREAD.
Probable cause
THE IMPROPER USE OF CARBURETOR HEAT WHICH RESULTED IN A POWER LOSS DUE TO CARBURETOR ICE OVER UNSUITABLE TERRAIN. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE THE CARBURETOR ICING CONDITIONS AND THE FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO BE AWARE OF THE TEMPERATURE/DEWPOINT SPREAD.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC92LA071
- Event ID
- 20001211X14345
- Case number
- NYC92LA071
- 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: 25d236412a9a4acc801de2db1cb19fa1508c1bda42de780078d7f3f1868a5040; retrieved 2026-09-23T03:16:23.458Z.