BFO89LA039 · Aircoupe ALON A2A
Aircoupe ALON A2A · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Dinwiddie County Airport (PTB) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO89LA039
- 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
Aircoupe ALON A2A
- Aircraft type
- Aircoupe ALON A2A
- 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
- N5488F
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Dinwiddie County Airport (PTB), Petersburg, VATo 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 (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
- Ignition system, magneto › Output low
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Pilot in command(cfi) › In-flight planning/decision, poor
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PURPOSE OF THE FLT WAS TO PREPARE THE STUDENT FOR HIS PVT PILOT CHECKRIDE. THE CFI AND STUDENT WERE PERFORMING A SIMULATED FORCED LANDING SPIRAL AND THE STUDENT WAS INSTRUCTED TO PERFORM A GO-AROUND AT 900 FT MSL. WHEN THE THROTTLE WAS ADVANCED TO GO-AROUND THE STUDENT REPORTED TO THE CFI THAT HE COULD NOT GET FULL POWER. THE CFI ADJUSTED THE THROTTLE AND MIXTURE TO NO AVAIL. THE FORCED LANDING WAS CONTINUED AND AT THE LAST MINUTE THE AIRPLANE WAS TURNED TO AVOID A FARM HOUSE. THE LANDING GEAR CAUGHT A FURROW DURING THE LANDING FLARE AND THE AIRPLANE NOSED OVER. POST ACCIDENT INSPECTION REVEALED THAT THE ENGINE WOULD NOT OPERATE. BOTH MAGNETOS WERE REMOVED AND ONE REPLACEMENT MAGNETO WAS INSTALLED AFTER WHICH THE ENGINE OPERATED NORMALLY. AN FAA INSPECTOR REPORTED THAT THE MAGNETO COILS WERE 'WEAK'. THE ACFT HAD BEEN OPERATED 72 HOURS SINCE THE LAST ANNUAL INSPECTION.
Probable cause
LOW OUTPUT OF THE MAGNETOS WHICH RESULTED IN THE LOSS OF FULL POWER DURING THE ATTEMPTED RECOVERY FROM A SIMULATED FORCED LANDING. THE PILOT IGNORED INDICATIONS OF AN ENGINE PROBLEM DURING START WHEN THE ENGINE WAS HARD TO START.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO89LA039
- Event ID
- 20001213X28255
- Case number
- BFO89LA039
- 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 1989-06-01.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 4616e404324f76a7635c92719173f2c7c14c16faf3c4ab5808dfb75b4bbf4831; retrieved 2026-09-22T00:12:20.695Z.