FTW89LA114 · Cessna 150J
Cessna 150J · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Shreveport Downtown Airport (DTN) to GNV · Greenville, MS
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW89LA114
- 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 150J
- 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
- N60625
- Operator
- James M. Maples, JR · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Shreveport Downtown Airport (DTN), Shreveport, LATo GNV · Greenville, MS
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- 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
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, annual inspection, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRPLANE HAD JUST BEEN PURCHASED AND WAS BEING FERRIED TO A NEW LOCATION. THE PILOT SAID HE HAD LEVELED OFF AT 3,500 FEET, AND WAS ATTEMPTING TO LEAN THE FUEL MIXTURE, BUT THE ENGINE STARTED RUNNING ROUGH. HE PLACED THE MIXTURE CONTROL BACK TO FULL RICH AND THE ENGINE SMOOTHED OUT, SO HE DECIDED TO FLY THE REMAINDER OF THE FLIGHT IN FULL RICH. HE SAID THE ENGINE RAN GOOD FOR FIVE MINUTES, THEN THE RPM STARTED TO FALL FROM 2,400 TO 1,500, AND HE WAS UNABLE TO MAINTAIN ALTITUDE AND AIRSPEED. ATC FURNISHED VECTORS TOWARD THE NEAREST AIRPORT, BUT THE ENGINE QUIT COMPLETELY AND THE PILOT HAD TO MAKE A FORCED LANDING IN A HEAVILY WOODED AREA. POST ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THE MIXTURE CONTROL HOUSING, AT THE CARBURETOR, HAD SLIPPED FROM THE ATTACHMENT CLAMP. THE MIXTURE CONTROL ARM WAS FOUND IN CUTOFF AND IT WAS FOUND THAT IT WOULD NOT MOVE OUT OF CUTOFF, DESPITE THE POSITION OF THE MIXTURE CONTROL IN THE COCKPIT. IT COULD BE MOVED MANUALLY, AT THE CARBURETOR. THE ACFT HAD AN ANNUAL UNSPECTION 1.6 HOURS BEFORE THE ACCIDENT.
Probable cause
THE LOSS OF ENGINE POWER DUE TO IMPROPER MAINTENANCE PERFORMED DURING AN ANNUAL INSPECTION 1.6 FLYING HOURS PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT WHICH RESULTED IN THE MIXTURE CONTROL BECOMING DISCONNECTED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW89LA114
- Event ID
- 20001213X28586
- Case number
- FTW89LA114
- 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: 4eb44d8c183654ca8881096b11799e0db124d02b593af5edd86701bb8d98c4d8; retrieved 2026-09-23T07:29:34.710Z.