MKC89LA128 · Waco UPF-7
RWM Enterprises Waco UPF-7 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From 1H0 to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MKC89LA128
- 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
Waco UPF-7
- Aircraft type
- Waco UPF-7
- 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
- N29309
- Operator
- RWM Enterprises
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 1H0To 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
- Initial climb
- 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)
- 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
- Fuel system, carburetor › Ice
- Pilot in command › Carburetor heat, improper use of
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT REPORTED THAT SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF, AFTER ATTAINING AN ALTITUDE OF ABOUT 100 FT, THE ENGINE BEGAN LOSING POWER. HE INITIATED A SHALLOW RIGHT TURN TO AVOID TREES AND TO STAY OVER THE AIRPORT. HOWEVER, THE ENGINE LOST ALL POWER AND AN EMERGENCY LANDING WAS MADE IN AN ADJACENT CORN FIELD WHERE THE AIRCRAFT WAS SUBSTANTIALLY DAMAGED. NO PREIMPACT MECHANICAL MALFUNCTION OR FAILURE WAS FOUND DURING THE INVESTIGATION. THE TEMPERATURE & DEW POINT WERE 81 AND 50 DEGREES, RESPECTIVELY. ACCORDING TO ICING PROBABILITY CHARTS, CONDITIONS WERE CONDUCIVE TO CARBURETOR ICING.
Probable cause
IMPROPER USE OF THE CARBURETOR HEAT BY THE PILOT AND CARBURETOR ICE. CONTRIBUTING FACTORS WERE: CARBURETOR ICING CONDITIONS, HIGH OBSTRUCTIONS AND TERRAIN CONDITIONS (CORN CROP).
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MKC89LA128
- Event ID
- 20001213X28631
- Case number
- MKC89LA128
- 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: 895e41358a6bee39e3113ef7953812195b95d5399f2727f018792482646f0aa6; retrieved 2026-09-23T07:32:04.948Z.