SEA99LA056 · Piper PA-18-150
Piper PA-18-150 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Salem-Willamette Valley Airport/McNary Field (SLE) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA99LA056
- 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
Piper PA-18-150
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-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
- N7483L
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Salem-Willamette Valley Airport/McNary Field (SLE)To 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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)
- 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 › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot, who had been cleared for a straight-in approach, began a reduced-power descent from approximately 2000 feet above ground level (AGL) while about five miles from the runway. About half way through the descent, the pilot retarded the throttle to idle but did not apply carburetor heat. When he reached 400 feet AGL, the pilot realized he was getting too low on the approach, so he pushed the throttle forward in order to add power and arrest his descent. Upon moving the throttle forward, the engine did not respond. The pilot then applied full carburetor heat, but he could not get the engine to restart. It was ultimately determined that his descent had been made under conditions where severe carburetor icing could be expected at glide power. Although the PA-18 Owners Handbook did not call for the use of carburetor heat during all approaches, it did require it when '... icing conditions prevail.'
Probable cause
The pilot's improper decision not to apply carburetor heat during a reduced power descent in conditions conducive to carburetor icing. Factors include weather conditions conducive to carburetor icing, and high vegetation and a fence post in the area where the forced landing was attempted.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA99LA056
- Event ID
- 20001212X18885
- Case number
- SEA99LA056
- 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: bebc7aabf74ff21e9bdc0684f1ed1e6483a912c68cd8420fe7885bc71b5cd05f; retrieved 2026-09-22T15:17:10.117Z.