MKC89LA062 · Cessna 152
Liberty Aviation Cessna 152 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Lawrence Municipal Airport (LWC) to Hawk Air Airport (MO10)
Event
- NTSB case
- MKC89LA062
- 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
- N25909
- Operator
- Liberty Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lawrence Municipal Airport (LWC), Lawrence, KSTo Hawk Air Airport (MO10), Liberty, MO
- 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
- 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
- Pilot in command › Carburetor heat, improper use of
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Kansas City, MO, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT SAID WHILE IN NORMAL CRUISE CONFORMATION, THE ENGINE MISFIRED. HE APPLIED CARB HEAT AND THE ENGINE PERFORMED NORMALLY. HE REMOVED THE CARB HEAT AND IN ABOUT 2 TO 3 MINUTES THE ENGINE LOST SUBSTANTIAL POWER. CARB HEAT WAS THEN APPLIED WHICH RESULTED IN A GAIN IN POWER, BUT NOT TO NORMAL SPECIFICATIONS. THE PLT MADE A DECISION TO MAKE AN EMERGENCY LDG ON THE ONLY AVAILABLE SPACE. HE REDUCED THE POWER TO IDLE, APPLIED FULL FLAPS AND ATTEMPTED TO LAND ON A FIELD. HE FELT THE ENGINE HAD CLEARED ENOUGH FOR A POSSIBILITY FOR CONTINUATION OF THE FLIGHT BUT ELECTED TO CONTINUE WITH THE LANDING. THE ACFT LANDED ON A FIELD, RAN ONTO A ROAD AND STRUCK A TELEPHONE POLE WITH THE RIGHT WING. METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS WERE CONDUCIVE FOR THE FORMATION OF CARB ICE ACCORDING TO THE 'CARBURETOR ICING PROBABILITY CHARTS.' THE TEMP WAS 26 DEG F AND DEWPOINT WAS 3 DEGS F.
Probable cause
IMPROPER USE OF THE CARBURETOR HEAT CONTROL BY PILOT IN COMMAND.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MKC89LA062
- Event ID
- 20001213X27783
- Case number
- MKC89LA062
- 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: ba5d7bee2809c20c9e50810382b5076cc6b2aad1f53f95aef54f14fd9d5d378c; retrieved 2026-09-23T07:52:00.711Z.