CHI87LA131 · Cessna 150J
Cessna 150J · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From Neillsville Municipal Airport (VIQ) to Elroy Municipal Airport (60C)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI87LA131
- 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
- N50499
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Neillsville Municipal Airport (VIQ), Neillsville, WITo Elroy Municipal Airport (60C), Elroy, WI
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A STUDENT & INSTRUCTOR (CFI) WERE ON A DUAL X-COUNTRY FLT FM ELROY TO NEILLSVILLE & RTRN. THE FLT TO NEILLSVILLE WAS UNEVENTFULL. AFTER THE ACFT WAS ON THE GND APRX 20 MIN, HOT STARTING PROCEDURES WERE USED TO START THE ENG FOR THE RTRN FLT. ENG RUNUP & TAKEOFF WERE NORMAL UNTIL THE ACFT WAS APRX 150 FT AGL, THEN THE ENG LOST PWR. THE CFI TOOK CTL OF THE ACFT & ATMTD A RESTART WHILE PUMPING THE THROTTLE. HE TURNED RGT ABOUT 30 DEG FOR AN EMERG LNDG. DRG THE LNDG, THE ACFT HIT THE TOPS OF SMALL TREES, ENCOUNTERED SOFT DIRT & NOSED OVER. SUBSEQUENTLY, IT BEGAN BURNING & WAS DESTROYED BY FIRE.DRG THE INVESTIGATION, NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION WAS FND THAT WOULD HAVE CAUSED THE LOSS OF POWER. THE PLT BELIEVED THE LOSS OF POWER WAS DUE TO A VAPOR LOCK, BUT THIS WAS NOT VERIFIED. THE PLT RPRTD THE ACFT HAD BEEN SVCD WITH A 50/50 MIXTURE OF 100 OCTANE LOW LEAD FUEL & NO-LEAD AUTO FUEL. LYCOMING SVC INSTRN #1070K DID NOT PERMIT THE USE OF AUTO FUEL DUE TO ITS CORROSIVE EFFECT & BECAUSE OF VAPOR LOCK THAT COULD RESULT FM ITS HI VAPOR PRESSURE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI87LA131
- Event ID
- 20001213X30899
- Case number
- CHI87LA131
- 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: 0d0f105ab89092c0d01d3779c7fc101f2b76ad52b136a97f925f530713fdd66c; retrieved 2026-09-22T00:52:32.963Z.