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FTW91LA130 · Cessna 150G

29 Jul 1991 · Hitchcock, TX, United States

Avtex Aviation Cessna 150G · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb

From SPX · League City, TX to an unrecorded destination

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Event

NTSB case
FTW91LA130
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 150G

Aircraft type
Cessna 150
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
N8585J
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From SPX · League City, TXTo 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
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

  • Pilot in command › Airspeed, not maintained

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

THE COMMERCIAL PILOT UPON RENTING A CESSNA 150G, WAS ADVISED BY THE OWNER THAT THE AIRPLANE REQUIRED THE MIXTURE TO BE LEANED IN ORDER TO RUN SMOOTHLY. UPON DEPARTURE, UTILIZING A LEANED MIXTURE, THE AIRPLANE BEGAN TO RUN ROUGH AND THE PILOT ELECTED TO CONDUCT A PRECAUTIONARY LANDING. A SECOND PRE-FLIGHT WAS PERFORMED AND A DEPARTURE WAS COMMENCED FROM THE GRASS AIRSTRIP. AT APPROXIMATELY 1800 FEET DOWN THE 2,600 FOOT AIRSTRIP, AT AN APPROXIMATE ALTITUDE OF 25 FEET, A POWER LOSS OCCURRED AND THE AIRPLANE SUBSEQUENTLY COLLIDED WITH THE TERRAIN. PERFORMANCE DATA INDICATES THAT THE TOTAL DISTANCE TO CLEAR A 50 FOOT OBSTACLE, GIVEN THE EXISTING CONDITIONS, WAS 1,625 FEET. THE PILOT ATTEMPTED TO LOWER THE NOSE TO LAND BUT WAS TOO SLOW TO MAINTAIN CONTROL OF THE AIRPLANE'S LANDING ATTITUDE. ELEVATION WAS 20 FEET MSL.

Probable cause

A POWER LOSS FOR UNDETERMINED REASONS AND THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN SUFFICIENT AIRSPEED DURING THE FORCED LANDING. FACTORS WERE THE PILOT'S CONTINUED OPERATION WITH A KNOWN ENGINE DEFICIENCY AND THE OWNER/OPERATOR'S FAILURE TO PERFORM NEEDED MAINTENANCE.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record FTW91LA130
Event ID
20001212X17564
Case number
FTW91LA130
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: 41e8b8aa886e05f218a5e333a1e7299ba75b6a809b63502249f650c7d97abac7; retrieved 2026-09-23T03:52:29.550Z.