CHI85LA220 · Cessna 150H
Cessna 150H · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI85LA220
- 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 150H
- 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
- N6458S
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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 (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, calibration, improper
- Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, improper
- Fuel system, carburetor › Improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PURPOSE OF THE FLT WAS TO DEMONSTRATE THE ACFT TO A POSSIBLE BUYER. WHILE TAKING OFF, THE ENG LOST POWER SHORTLY AFTER THE ACFT LIFTED OFF AT ABOUT MID-FIELD. THE PLT ATTEMPTED TO TURN THE ACFT & LAND ON A CROSS-RUNWAY. HOWEVER, DUE TO HIS LOW SPEED & LOW ALT, HE WAS UNABLE TO ALIGN THE ACFT WITH THE RWY. THE ACFT WAS LANDED IN GRASS WHERE IT SUBSEQUENTLY NOSED OVER. THE ENG HAD ONLY 1 HR OF FLT TIME SINCE IT HAD BEEN OVERHAULED. DURING THE OVERHAUL, A FACET AEROSPACE CARBURETOR FLOAT KIT, NUMBER 666-915, HAD BEEN INSTALLED IN THE MARVEL SCHEBLER CARBURETOR BY THE PLT/OWNER, WHO WAS ALSO AN A&P MECHANIC. AN EXAM REVEALED THAT SERVICE BULLETIN NUMBER A1-84A WAS NOT COMPLIED WITH, THE FLOAT DROP WAS NOT ADJUSTED PROPERLY, FUEL FLOW WAS LOW, THE THROTTLE SHAFT WAS LOOSE, THE ACCELERATOR PUMP WAS DRY ROTTED & CRACKED, & THE BUTTERFLY VALVE WAS INSTALLED UPSIDE DOWN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI85LA220
- Event ID
- 20001214X36696
- Case number
- CHI85LA220
- 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: cdb3052bdfdd777900662116facebb4c4081e4d11a9edc5449930babbce43145; retrieved 2026-09-23T17:26:41.842Z.