CHI88LA099 · Cessna 150M
Southern Illinois University Cessna 150M · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Southern Illinois Airport (MDH) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI88LA099
- 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 150M
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 150
- 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
- N9410U
- Operator
- Southern Illinois University
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Southern Illinois Airport (MDH), Carbondale, ILTo 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
- En route · descent
- 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)
- 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
- Engine assembly, valve, exhaust › Binding(mechanical)
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
UPON COMPLETION OF A PRACTICE EMERGENCY LANDING PROCEDURE DURING AN INSTRUCTIONAL FLIGHT, THE ENGINE STARTED TO RUN ROUGH AND THEN QUIT. THE INSTRUCTOR WAS ABLE TO REGAIN PARTIAL POWER, AND MADE FORCED LANDING IN FRESHLY PLOWED FIELD. THE AIRCRAFT NOSED OVER JUST BEFORE IT CAME TO A COMPLETE STOP. THE ENGINE WAS TEST RUN ON THE AIRFRAME, AND RAN VERY ROUGH. DIFFERENTIAL COMPRESSION CHECK WAS PERFORMED WITH LOW COMPRESSION ON CYLINDERS #2 AND #4. FURTHER INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THE #2 AND #4 EXHAUST VALVES WERE BINDING WHEN THE VALVES WERE APPROXIMATELY 0.25 INCHES FROM THE SEAT. THE VALVE STEMS WERE EXAMINED AND FOUND TO HAVE A CARBON-LIKE DEPOSIT SURROUNDING THE STEM FROM THE VALVE FACE TO THE AREA ON THE STEM WHERE IT ENTERS THE VALVE GUIDE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI88LA099
- Event ID
- 20001213X25433
- Case number
- CHI88LA099
- 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: 1de82c52b5eb26de633d14000b380d2613942f205435734ca92105b0b9520d47; retrieved 2026-09-23T10:30:50.687Z.