MKC89FA096 · Piper PA-28-140
Piper PA-28-140 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Philip Billard Municipal Airport (TOP) to Miami County Airport (K81)
Event
- NTSB case
- MKC89FA096
- 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
Piper PA-28-140
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N4315J
- Operator
- Wilson, Charles G. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Philip Billard Municipal Airport (TOP), Topeka, KSTo Miami County Airport (K81), Osawatomie, KS
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern downwind
- 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
- Pilot in command › Carburetor heat, not used
- Pilot in command › Go-around, attempted
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, poor
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT ATTEMPTED A GO-AROUND AFTER INITIATING A DOWNWIND APPROACH TO LAND. THE AIRCRAFT ENGINE LOST POWER DURING THE INITIAL CLIMB OF THE GO-AROUND. THE PILOT ATTEMPTED TO TURN BACK TOWARD THE RUNWAY TO EXECUTE A FORCED LANDING. THE AIRCRAFT IMPACTED IN A FIELD APPROXIMATELY 1,056 FEET SHORT OF THE RUNWAY. EXISTING METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS WERE CONDUCIVE TO CARBURETOR ICING. THE PILOT STATED THAT THE ENGINE HAD QUIT TWO TIMES AFTER ENTERING THE LANDING PATTERN. ON BOTH OCCASIONS THE PILOT WAS ABLE TO RESTART THE ENGINE. AN EYEWITNESS STATED THAT HE OBSERVED THE AIRCRAFT WITHIN THIRTY FEET OF HIS POSITION AT AN ALTITUDE OF APPROXIMATELY 2 TO 3 FEET OFF THE GRASS RUNWAY IN A LANDING ATTITUDE. THE ENGINE WAS SUCCESSFULLY RUN AFTER REPLACING THE CARBURETOR AND FUEL STRAINER.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO USE CARBURETOR HEAT DURING THE DESCENT FOR LANDING WHICH RESULTED IN A LOSS OF ENGINE POWER AT A CRITICAL TIME IN FLIGHT, A GO-AROUND.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MKC89FA096
- Event ID
- 20001213X28166
- Case number
- MKC89FA096
- 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: b3e59ace27c2f0c34b398d7d37b5a92cff18741b07c4e89a9128dda599bdcb7b; retrieved 2026-09-21T15:56:06.392Z.