ATL89LA096 · Cessna 152
Dominion Aerospace Cessna 152 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Tri-Cities Regional TN/VA Airport (TRI) to 6A8 · Abingdon, VA
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL89LA096
- 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
- N25524
- Operator
- Dominion Aerospace
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tri-Cities Regional TN/VA Airport (TRI), Blountville, TNTo 6A8 · Abingdon, VA
- 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)
- 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
- Pole
- 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 › Carburetor heat, delayed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT REPORTED THAT ABOUT 10 MINUTES AFTER TAKEOFF, HE WAS IN CRUISE FLT AT 3,000 FT WHEN HIS ENGINE DEVELOPED A MISS AND BEGAN TO RUN ROUGH. AFTER EMERGENCY PROCEDURES WHICH INCLUDED APPLYING CARB HEAT, THERE WAS A SLIGHT IMPROVEMENT IN ENGINE PERFORMANCE. SHORTLY, THE ENGINE QUIT COMPLETELY AND THE PILOT WAS UNABLE TO RETURN TO THE DEPARTURE AIRPORT. DURING THE FORCED LANDING ATTEMPT, THE AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH A UTILITY POLE AND POWER LINE AT OR NEAR STALL SPEED. THE PILOT AND HIS PASSENGER RECEIVED MINOR INJURIES. AFTER RECOVERY OF THE AIRPLANE, THE ENGINE WAS STARTED AND OPERATED SATISFACTORILY. THE EXISTING AMBIENT ATMOSPHERIC CONDITIONS WERE FAVORABLE FOR THE FORMATION OF CARBURETOR ICE.
Probable cause
CARBURETOR ICE. THE PILOT FAILED TO APPLY CARBURETOR HEAT IN A TIMELY AND ADEQUATE MANNER. THIS FAILURE RESULTED IN THE ACCUMULATION OF ICE TO A POINT OF FAILURE OF THE ENGINE WHICH ELIMINATED THE HEAT NECESSARY TO REMOVE THE ICE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL89LA096
- Event ID
- 20001213X27831
- Case number
- ATL89LA096
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1989-03-05.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 89edda4062b22e63a61639d7f16a6809ed78b4e45302ff4bfb75d4192130fdbc; retrieved 2026-09-22T00:16:41.562Z.