ATL89LA162 · Cessna 150M
Cessna 150M · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during takeoff
From DKX to DKX
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL89LA162
- 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 150M
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 150
- 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
- N714SR
- Operator
- L. J. Morse · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From DKXTo DKX
- 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
- Takeoff · roll/run
- 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
- Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, 100-hour inspection, delayed
- Engine assembly, valve, exhaust › Open
- Pilot in command › Aborted takeoff, delayed
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, not understood
- Pilot in command › Operation with known deficiencies in equipment, intentional
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Knoxville, TN, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE STUDENT WAS MAKING A PRACTICE SOLO FLIGHT TO PREPARE FOR HER PRIVATE PILOT CERTIFICATION TEST THE FOLLOWING WEEK. AFTER AN ENGINE RUNUP WHICH RESULTED IN AN EXCESSIVE MAG DROP ON THE FIRST ATTEMPT, SHE ATTEMPTED A TAKEOFF ON RUNWAY 26. SHE HAD USED UP ABOUT HALF OF THE 3,500 FT RWY BEFORE THE AIRSPEED INDICATOR FURNISHED A READING. THE READING DID NOT GET ABOVE 40 MPH DURING THE TAKEOFF RUN. THE ENGINE STARTED RUNNING ROUGH AND SHE DECIDED TO ABORT THE TAKEOFF. THE AIRPLANE VEERED LEFT OFF THE RUNWAY, 183 FEET FROM THE END. IT CONTINUED OVER THE GRASS SURFACE AND INTO THE RIVER/LAKE SURROUNDING THE AIRPORT. THE SKID MARKS FROM THE APPLICATION OF THE MAIN WHEEL BRAKES BEGAN 215 FEET FROM THE END OF THE RUNWAY. THE THROTTLE WAS FOUND IN THE CLOSED POSITION. THE EXHAUST VALVE FOR THE NUMBER FOUR CYLINDER WAS FOUND STUCK IN THE OPEN POSITION. INSPECTION REVEALED THE AIRPLANE WAS 10 HOURS PAST DUE OF IT'S 100 HOUR INSPECTION.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO RECOGNIZE THAT THE ENGINE WAS NOT DEVELOPING FULL POWER AND THE DELAY IN PERFORMING REMEDIAL ACTION UNTIL IT WAS TOO LATE TO STOP THE AIRPLANE ON THE RUNWAY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL89LA162
- Event ID
- 20001213X28492
- Case number
- ATL89LA162
- 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: 430ee1cc6984ea0aaf5ed27dbd0f706c5a7772ad380487cd429b5916d614e70a; retrieved 2026-09-22T00:10:58.779Z.