MIA92LA029 · WSK PZL Mielec PZL-M-18
Fable Spray Service WSK PZL Mielec PZL-M-18 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA92LA029
- 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
WSK PZL Mielec PZL-M-18
- Aircraft type
- WSK PZL Mielec PZL-M-18
- 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
- N4506K
- Operator
- Fable Spray Service
- 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 137: Agricultural
- 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 · aerial application
- 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
- Induction air control, intake manifold › Loose
- Unknown › Maintenance, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AFTER MANEUVERING, THE ENG EXPERIENCED A NEAR TOTAL LOSS OF POWER. THE PLT APPLIED FULL THROTTLE BUT THE ENG FAILED TO RESPOND. HE OPENED THE VALVE TO DUMP THE CHEMICAL & WHILE DESCENDING, THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH RISING TERRAIN. THE ACFT THEN CAME TO REST IN A FIELD. EXAM OF THE ENG ASSY REVEALED THAT THE INTAKE MANIFOLD ATTACHED TO THE BOTTOM OF THE OIL SUMP WAS LOOSE. THIS ALLOWED AN EXCESSIVELY LEAN FUEL/AIR MIXTURE WHICH WAS VERIFIED BY VISUAL EXAMINATION OF THE SPARK PLUGS. REVIEW OF THE ENG LOGBOOK REVEALED THAT THE ENG WAS INSTALLED ON APRIL 5, 1989. THERE WERE NO ENTRIES INDICATING THAT THE CARBURETOR ASSY WAS REMOVED SINCE THE ENG WAS INSTALLED.
Probable cause
PARTIAL LOSS OF ENGINE POWER DUE TO A LOOSE INTAKE MANIFOLD. ALSO, IMPROPER MAINTENANCE BY AN UNKNOWN PERSON.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA92LA029
- Event ID
- 20001212X18491
- Case number
- MIA92LA029
- 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: 9cd1b1ab0d0e1c355987609d612a63f022b64c5d13da82d5fe58571c01e20223; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:23:29.789Z.