BFO92LA092 · Cessna 152
Ramair Cessna 152 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) while maneuvering
From 07W · Chestertown, MD to Martin State Airport (MTN)
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO92LA092
- 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 152
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 152
- 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
- N89577
- Operator
- Ramair
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 07W · Chestertown, MDTo Martin State Airport (MTN), Baltimore, MD
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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)
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Utility pole
- 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
- Fuel system, carburetor › Ice
- Pilot in command › Carburetor heat, improper use of
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT TOOK OFF, FLEW TO ANOTHER AIRPORT, AND MADE A LANDING. AFTER LANDING, HE TAXIED BACK TO THE RUNWAY FOR THE RETURN FLIGHT. AFTER TAKEOFF, HE CLIMBED ABOUT 500 TO 750 FEET AND BEGAN A TURN TO DOWNWIND, THEN NOTICED THE AIRPLANE WOULD NOT CLIMB DESPITE FULL THROTTLE. HE TRIED TO LAND BACK ON THE AIRPORT. HE SAID HE 'RECHECKED THE THROTTLE, FUEL SHUTOFF VALVE ON, IGNITION SWITCH BOTH, CARBURETOR HEAT, OFF, MIXTURE, IN.' SUBSEQUENTLY, THE AIRPLANE DESCENDED, STRUCK THE TOPS OF 2 HOUSES AND A UTILITY POLE, THEN CAME TO REST IN THE FRONT YARD OF A RESIDENCE. NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE WAS FOUND, AND FUEL WAS DRAINED FROM THE CARBURETOR. THE TEMPERATURE AND DEW POINT WERE 76 & 60 DEGREES, RESPECTIVELY. ACCORDING TO ICING PROBABILITY CURVES, CONDITIONS WERE CONDUCIVE FOR CARBURETOR ICE.
Probable cause
CARBURETOR ICE, DUE TO THE PILOT'S IMPROPER USE OF CARBURETOR HEAT. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: CARBURETOR ICING (WEATHER) CONDITIONS, AND OBSTRUCTIONS (HOUSES AND UTILITY POLE) IN THE EMERGENCY LANDING AREA.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO92LA092
- Event ID
- 20001211X15064
- Case number
- BFO92LA092
- 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: 19d56e4b421bbfa600f21ba159861647f1ff5156251141d6d908418327c2678d; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:12:50.914Z.