MKC89LA185 · Piper PA-32-260
Piper PA-32-260 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From Leon, IA (no airport) to Washington Municipal Airport (AWG)
Event
- NTSB case
- MKC89LA185
- 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
Piper PA-32-260
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-32
- 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
- N8AG
- Operator
- Miller, Lring V. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Leon, IA (no airport)To Washington Municipal Airport (AWG), Washington, IA
- 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
- Partial 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
- Induction air control/system › Blocked(partial)
- Induction air control/system › Foreign object
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT SAID THAT SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF AT ABOUT 150 FEET AGL, THE ENGINE BEGAN TO LOSE POWER. UNABLE TO SUSTAIN FLIGHT, AN EMERGENCY LDG WAS ATTEMPTED WHICH RESULTED IN SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGE AND SERIOUS AND MINOR INJURIES TO THE OCCUPANTS. POST ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION REVEALED THE ENGINE'S AIR INDUCTION SYSTEM WAS PLUGGED WITH A FIELD MOUSE NEST, CAUSING ALMOST COMPLETE RESTRICTION OF THE ENGINE'S AIR INDUCTION SYSTEM. THERE WAS NO WAY TO VISUALLY IDENTIFY THE RESTRICTION DURING THE PREFLIGHT DUE TO THE LOCATION OF THE NEST. THE PLT SAID THE PRE-TAKEOFF RUNUP WAS SATISFACTORY, BUT HE THOUGHT THAT DURING THE TAKEOFF ON THE ROUGH PRIVATE STRIP, THE NEST BECAME DISLODGED AND WAS DRAWN FARTHER UP THE INDUCTION SYSTEM AND CARBURETOR CAUSING THE LOSS OF POWER.
Probable cause
BLOCKAGE OF THE ENGINE AIR INDUCTION SYSTEM BY A FIELD MOUSE NEST. THE NEST WAS POSITIONED SO THAT IT COULD NOT BE SEEN DURING THE PRE-FLIGHT INSPECTION. IT BECAME DISLODGED DURING THE TAKEOFF ROLL ON THE ROUGH RUNWAY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MKC89LA185
- Event ID
- 20001213X29216
- Case number
- MKC89LA185
- 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: 025dbe67e1795acaadd9e11e5f547d8c342dc87c489989c3b994505224e921c5; retrieved 2026-09-21T15:50:43.625Z.