MKC85LA041 · Piper PA-28-180
Piper PA-28-180 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From M42 · Grenada, MS to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MKC85LA041
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-28-180
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N2320T
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From M42 · Grenada, MSTo 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
- Approach · IFR missed approach
- 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
- Fuel system, carburetor › Ice
- Pilot in command › Carburetor heat, not used
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
PLT STATED HE HAD ATTEMPTED AN NDB APPROACH TO RWY 18 BUT EXECUTED A MISSED APPROACH WHEN HE COULD NOT SEE THE RWY WHEN THE ACFT WAS AT 800 FT. THE PLT PITCHED THE ACFT TO A CLIMB ATTITUDE AND ADDED FULL THROTTLE. HE CONTINUED TO STATE THAT THE ACFT FELT 'STRANGE AND MUSHY' WHILE IN A LEFT TURN. THE PLT ROLLED THE WINGS LEVEL AND NOTICED A DROP IN AIRSPEED FROM 100 MPH TO 80. THE POST CRASH EXAM OF THE ACFT REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF A MECHANICAL MALFUNCTION OR FAILURE OF THE ACFT STRUCTURE, FLT CONTROLS OR ENGINE. THE TEMP & DUE POINT WERE 60 & 59 DEG, RESPECTIVELY. ACCORDING TO ICING PROBABILITY CHARTS, SERIOUS CARB ICING COULD OCCUR AT CRUISE OR GLIDE POWER. THE PLT STATED THAT HE NEVER OPERATED THE CARB HEAT CONTROL DURING THE APPROACH.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MKC85LA041
- Event ID
- 20001214X41873
- Case number
- MKC85LA041
- 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: dd1c2eab0f3fcb8429105732734c5997c4e3ef2f4cdc40e4cb1dd3fade630227; retrieved 2026-09-22T02:01:04.332Z.