CHI89LA118 · Cessna 172M
Washington Aeronautics Cessna 172M · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From 418 · Indianapolis, IN to 142 · Paoli, IN
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI89LA118
- 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 172M
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- 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
- N13652
- Operator
- Washington Aeronautics
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 418 · Indianapolis, INTo 142 · Paoli, IN
- 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
- Fuel contamination; Tree(s)
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Contamination
- Fuel system, carburetor › Deteriorated
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Indianapolis, IN, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE STUDENT PLT WAS ON HIS 1ST SOLO X-COUNTRY FLT. SHORTLY AFTER LEVELING ON THE 2ND LEG OF THE FLT, THE ENG LOST POWER & WOULD NOT RESTART. AS THE STUDENT WAS MANEUVERING TO LAND IN A FIELD, THE ACFT'S LEFT WING STRUCK A TREETOP, THEN THE ACFT CRASHED TO THE GROUND. AN INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THE FUEL SYSTEM WAS CONTAMINATED WITH DEBRIS FROM THE DETERIORATING CARBURETOR ACCELERATOR PUMP. A FUEL SAMPLE WAS TAKEN FOR AN ANALYSIS, WHICH REVEALED THE FUEL WAS A MIXTURE OF AVGAS & AUTOMOTIVE GASOLINE.
Probable cause
FUEL CONTAMINATION FROM A DETERIORATING PART IN THE CARBURETOR. THE TREES AND IMPROPER MAINTENANCE/SERVICING OF THE AIRCRAFT WERE PROBABLE CONTRIBUTING FACTORS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI89LA118
- Event ID
- 20001213X28538
- Case number
- CHI89LA118
- 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: 33f9c7e52c8a54c529aeb4d363ecb996f0add585f8f0c42402ac4667395d8b0f; retrieved 2026-09-22T00:10:19.857Z.