ATL89LA159 · Cessna 152
Cessna 152 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) while maneuvering
From William L. Whitehurst Field (M08) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL89LA159
- 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
- N24451
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From William L. Whitehurst Field (M08), Bolivar, TNTo 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Mixture control, cable › Separation
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Jackson, TN, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
AFTER A SERIES OF TURNS-ABOUT-A-POINT, THE AIRPLANE EXPERIENCED A PARTIAL LOSS OF POWER WHEN FULL THROTTLE WAS APPLIED TO INITIATE A CLIMB. SUBSEQUENT EFFORTS BY THE INSTRUCTOR AND THE PRIVATE-PILOT STUDENT TO REGAIN POWER WERE UNSUCCESSFUL, AND A FORCED LDG WAS MADE IN A PLOWED FIELD. THE AIRPLANE ENCOUNTERED SOFT DIRT AND NOSED OVER DURING THE LANDING ROLL. POST-EXAMINATION OF THE AIRPLANE REVEALED THAT THE MIXTURE CONTROL CABLE HAD SEPARATED FROM THE MIXTURE CONTROL LEVER ON THE CARBURETOR; THE CABLE END HAD PULLED OUT OF THE ATTACHMENT HARDWARE. THE AIRPLANE HAD UNDERGONE A 100-HR INSPECTION ABOUT 1 MONTH BEFORE THE MISHAP.
Probable cause
THE SEPARATION OF THE MIXTURE CABLE FROM THE CARBURETOR. CONTRIBUTING FACTOR(S) WAS: INADEQUATE MAINTENANCE AND INSPECTION OF THE AIRPLANE AND THE SOFT TERRAIN ENCOUNTERED DURING THE FORCED LANDING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL89LA159
- Event ID
- 20001213X28491
- Case number
- ATL89LA159
- 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: d730ca0a49f1e8fd332adb2bc78ae95ad64d564185f719e53827b46922cbf5fa; retrieved 2026-09-23T07:31:07.942Z.