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NYC91FA246 · Cessna 172P

21 Sept 1991 · West Chicago, IL, United States

Dupage Airport Authority Cessna 172P · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb

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Event

NTSB case
NYC91FA246
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
2 · 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 172P

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
N65729
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From not recordedTo 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 (mechanical failure)
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
Stall; 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

  • Pilot in command › Airspeed, not maintained
  • Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
  • Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, not followed
  • Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent

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

NTSB narrative

THE PILOT RENTED N65729 FROM AN FBO FOR A LOCAL FLIGHT. WITNESSES STATED THAT SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF FROM RUNWAY 15, THEY SAW THE AIRPLANE TRAILING 'LIGHT GRAY SMOKE' AND HEARD THE ENGINE LOSE POWER. THE WITNESSES SAW THE AIRPLANE IN A STEEP LEFT BANK TURN AT AN ALTITUDE OF BETWEEN 300 AND 500 FEET AGL. THE AIRPLANE THEN DESCENDED IN A NOSE LOW ALTITUDE INTO THE PARKING LOT OF AN INDUSTRIAL PLANT. POST ACCIDENT EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE REVEALED THE TWO PIECE CARBURETOR PRIMARY VENTURI HAD SEPARATED FROM ITS NORMAL MOUNTED POSITION AND WAS INGESTED INTO THE NO. 2 CYLINDER. SEVERAL SERVICE BULLETINS HAD BEEN ISSUED BY THE MANUFACTURER ADDRESSING THE INSTALLATION OF A NEW ONE PIECE VENTURI. PRECISION AIRMOTIVE ISSUED SERVICE BULLETIN MSA 2 ON OCT. 15 90. REVIEW OF THE ENGINE LOGBOOK FOR N65729 REVEALED SERVICE BULLETIN MSA 2 HAD NOT BEEN ACCOMPLISHED.

Probable cause

THE PILOT'S IMPROPER IN-FLIGHT DECISION TO RETURN TO THE AIRPORT FOLLOWING A LOSS OF ENGINE POWER AT A LOW ALTITUDE. THE PILOT FAILED TO MAINTAIN AIRSPEED WHICH RESULTED IN AN INADVERTENT STALL AT AN ALTITUDE INSUFFICIENT FOR RECOVERY. FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WERE THE LOSS OF ENGINE POWER DUE TO THE FAILURE OF THE CARBURETOR VENTURI, THE OPERATOR'S DISREGARD OF THE PRECISION AIRMOTIVE SERVICE BULLETIN.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record NYC91FA246
Event ID
20001212X18161
Case number
NYC91FA246
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: 96c299b14a7021c4f4db84e4821610afce0417c4b76154367887a6ade122162a; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:33:46.358Z.