Northeast Aeromotive Cessna 402B accident
Cessna 402B · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Portland International Jetport (PWM)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC88LA071
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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 402B
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 402
- 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
- N4175G
- Operator
- Northeast Aeromotive
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Portland International Jetport (PWM), Portland, ME
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- Fuel starvation
- 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
- Copilot/second pilot › Monitoring, improper
- Pilot in command › Supervision, inadequate
- Wrong engine shutdown
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Bangor, ME, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE CREW RPRTD THAT DRG TAKEOFF, A POWER SURGE OCCURRED AFTER THE ACFT HAD CLIMBED ABOUT 400 TO 500 FT. THE COPLT SAW WHAT HE LATER SAID WAS A RIGHT FUEL FLOW FLUCTUATION & TOLD THE PLT (PIC) THAT THE RIGHT ENG WAS LOSING POWER. THE PIC TOLD THE COPLT TO SECURE THE ENG. ANTICIPATING NO SERIOUS PROBLEM, THE PIC INTENDED TO REMAIN IN THE PATTERN & MAKE A SINGLE ENG LANDING. HOWEVER, HE WAS UNABLE TO MAINT SPEED WITHOUT DSCNDG & WAS FORCED TO LAND. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE ACFT WENT THRU A FENCE, CROSSED A RAILROAD TRACK & STOPPED ON A ROAD. DRG AN OPNL CHECK OF THE ENGS, THE RIGHT ENG STARTED & RAN NORMALLY. HOWEVER, THE LEFT ENG WAS DIFFICULT TO START & WOULD NOT RUN ABOVE 1000 RPM UNTIL ANOTHER FUEL METERING VALVE WAS INSTALLED. A TEARDOWN OF THE FAULTY METERING VALVE REVEALED CONTAMINATION FROM AN UNKNOWN SOURCE. ALSO, THE LEFT FUEL PUMP DISCHARGE PRESSURE WAS FOUND TO BE 62 PSI. AN ADJUSTMENT OF THE ALTITUDE ANEROID CONTROL RETURNED THE PUMP DISCHARGE PRESSURE TO WITHIN THE MAX LIMIT OF 32.5 PSI.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC88LA071
- Event ID
- 20001213X25145
- Case number
- NYC88LA071
- 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: fdec974f7343eebb236eeb739354451b4163626f348e75ae5eca5e27de4095fa; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:28:40.111Z.