BFO92LA087 · Piper J3C
Control Aero Piper J3C · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during takeoff
From Frederick Municipal Airport (FDK) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO92LA087
- 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
Piper J3C
- Aircraft type
- Piper J3
- 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
- N92668
- Operator
- Control Aero
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Frederick Municipal Airport (FDK)To 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- Pilot in command › Carburetor heat, improper use of
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE CERTIFICATED FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR (CFI) STATED THAT THE FLIGHT WAS AN INTRODUCTION FLIGHT. HE STATED THAT AFTER THE PREFLIGHT, HE AND THE STUDENT SPENT SOME TIME TAXIING THE AIRPLANE AND PERFORMED SOME GROUND HANDLING EXERCISES. THE CFI STATED PRIOR TO TAKEOFF, TWO ENGINE RUN-UP'S WERE PERFORMED, AND NOTHING UNUSUAL WAS NOTED. THE CFI STATED THAT SHORTLY AFTER LIFTOFF THE ENGINE LOST PARTIAL POWER. HE STATED THAT A STRAIGHT AHEAD LANDING WAS NOT POSSIBLE DUE TO TREES AND HOMES, SO A LEFT TURN WAS MADE. THE CFI SAID HE CHECKED THE MAGNETOS, FUEL, AND APPLIED CARBURETOR HEAT. HE STATED THAT THE ENGINE CONTINUED TO LOSE POWER. THE CFI SAID HE EXECUTED AN OFF AIRPORT EMERGENCY LANDING AND SHORTLY AFTER TOUCHDOWN THE AIRPLANE'S LEFT WING STRUCK A TREE CAUSING SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGE. THE ON SCENE INVESTIGATION BY THE FAA REVEALED THE AIRPLANE WAS FUELED AND NO ENGINE ANOMALIES WERE FOUND. THE CFI REPORTED THE TEMPERATURE AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT WAS 64 DEGREES F, AND THE DEW POINT WAS 63 DEGREES F.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S IMPROPER USE OF CARBURETOR HEAT RESULTING IN THE FORMATION OF CARBURETOR ICE. CARBURETOR ICING WEATHER CONDITIONS WAS A FACTOR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO92LA087
- Event ID
- 20001211X15061
- Case number
- BFO92LA087
- 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: 80df3e168a8f3837a0fb2282f142ddd558aa3029381e55b3afd8e05cc2b08fde; retrieved 2026-09-23T02:58:19.042Z.