CHI93LA027 · Cessna 172
Cessna 172 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From 2H2 to 2H2
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI93LA027
- 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 172
- 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
- N5889A
- Operator
- Vernon W. Warren · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 2H2To 2H2
- 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)
- 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
- Fuel starvation
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Fuel system, selector/valve › Switched off
- Pilot in command › Lack of familiarity with aircraft
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT OF THE ACCIDENT AIRPLANE RECEIVED HIS ORIGINAL CHECKOUT IN THE ACCIDENT AIRPLANE SIX MONTHS BEFORE RECEIVING A SECOND CHECKOUT LASTING ONE HOUR. ONE WEEK AFTER THE SECOND CHECKOUT FLIGHT THE PILOT DEPARTED ON A LOCAL FLIGHT. DURING INITIAL CLIMBOUT THE PILOT REPORTED THE ENGINE WAS RUNNING ROUGH. PUMPING THE THROTTLE, ACCORDING TO THE PILOT, ALLEVIATED THE PROBLEM MOMENTARILY. AS THE AIRPLANE ENTERED ONTO A DOWNWIND LEG, THE ENGINE BEGAN TO RUN ROUGH ONCE AGAIN. THE PILOT STATED HE APPLIED CARBURETOR HEAT AND BEGAN A TURN ONTO A BASE LEG FOR THE LANDING RUNWAY. THE PILOT STATED THE ENGINE QUIT AT THIS POINT. THE AIRPLANE MADE A HARD LANDING IN A CITY HORSE LOT, NOSING OVER AS IT CAME TO A STOP. THE ON SCENE INVESTIGATION REVEALED THE ENGINE WAS CAPABLE OF OPERATING. THE CARBURETOR FLOAT BOWL AND ACCELERATOR PUMP WELL WERE DEVOID OF FUEL. THE GASCOLATOR WAS FOUND CLEAN AND DEVOID OF FUEL. THE FUEL SELECTOR WAS FOUND IN THE 'OFF' POSITION BY THE INVESTIGATOR.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S LACK OF FAMILIARITY WITH THE AIRPLANE, A SWITCHED OFF FUEL SELECTOR AND FUEL STARVATION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI93LA027
- Event ID
- 20001211X16013
- Case number
- CHI93LA027
- 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: 9566176a234b07dc5421eb4074b0c3751b7c0704936ba39d78c6103fcff15c33; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:05:18.414Z.