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NYC91LA041 · Cessna 152

9 Nov 1990 · Zanesville, OH, United States

State Aerial Farm Statistics Cessna 152 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route

From Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) to John Glenn Columbus International Airport (CMH)

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Event

NTSB case
NYC91LA041
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 152

Aircraft type
Cessna 152
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
N757FW
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), Newark, NJTo John Glenn Columbus International Airport (CMH), PORT COLUMBUS, OH
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
En route · cruise
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
  • Landing gear, nose gear strut › Overload
  • Pilot in command › Carburetor heat, improper use of

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

NTSB narrative

THE PILOT WAS CRUISING ON AN IFR FLIGHT PLAN IN AND OUT OF THE CLOUDS AT 6000 FT WITH AN OAT OF 2 TO 3 DEG C. THE ENGINE STARTED SURGING AND THEN LOST POWER. THE CONTROLLER ATTEMPTED TO RADAR VECTOR THE FLIGHT TO AN AIRPORT; HOWEVER, THE PILOT WAS FORCED TO MAKE AN OFF AIRPORT LANDING IN A PLOWED FIELD. THE AIRPLANE FLIPPED OVER DUE TO THE SOFT LANDING SURFACE. NO EVIDENCE OF A PRE-EXISTING FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION WAS FOUND.

Probable cause

IMPROPER USE OF CARBURETOR HEAT BY THE PILOT, WHICH RESULTED IN A LOSS OF POWER DUE TO CARBURETOR ICE. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: CARBURETOR ICING (WEATHER) CONDITIONS AND SOFT TERRAIN IN THE EMERGENCY LANDING AREA.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record NYC91LA041
Event ID
20001212X24692
Case number
NYC91LA041
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: 231a18e674af18a858c6e9cf478e9825c34b19965a22d115eee04377d65c9e24; retrieved 2026-09-23T05:10:34.187Z.