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LAX83LA463 · Cessna 172N

29 Sept 1983 · Tulelake, CA, United States

Enterprise Flying Club Cessna 172N · Accident: loss of engine power en route

From Q93 · ENTERPRISE, CA to an unrecorded destination

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Event

NTSB case
LAX83LA463
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 172N

Aircraft type
Cessna 172
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
N6089F
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Q93 · ENTERPRISE, CATo 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
En route · cruise
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
Loss of engine power
Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
Tree(s)
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

  • Reason for occurrence undetermined

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

THE PLT REPORTED THAT HE MADE A LOW PASS OVER THE MEDICINE LAKE AREA, THEN AFTER CIRCLING FOR A FEW MINUTES, HE CLIMBED BACK TO 7500 FT, ESTABLISHED 2000 RPM & 70 KTS, & CONTINUED THE FLT. APPX 5 MIN LATER, HE NOTICED THAT THE TREES APPEARED TO BE GETTING CLOSER. HE CHECKED HIS VERTICAL VELOCITY INDICATOR & NOTED A 200 FT/MIN DESCENT. HE THEN APPLIED FULL THROTTLE, BUT DID NOT NOTICE THE RPM INCREASE & CONTINUED TO LOSE ALTITUDE. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH A TREE & CRASHED AT AN ELEVATION OF ABOUT 6000 FT. DURING THE INVESTIGATION, THE ENG WAS EXAMINED & RUN ON A PORTABLE TEST STAND & IT OPERATED NORMALLY. THE DENSITY ALTITUDE OF THE CRASH SITE WAS ESTIMATED TO BE 8300 FT. REPORTEDLY, THE TEMP & DEW POINT IN THE AREA WERE 63 & 32 DEG, RESPECTIVELY. ACCORDING TO ICING PROBABILITY CHARTS, VISIBLE CARB ICING WAS POSSIBLE AT RATED POWER. ALSO, UPDRAFTS & DOWNDRAFTS WERE COMMON IN THE AREA & WERE REPORTED BY OTHER PLTS.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record LAX83LA463
Event ID
20001214X44607
Case number
LAX83LA463
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: a428f05bb322b8ff4b7243e2303ccf45356d3b3ddfe2c7b6576a3780dd798d2d; retrieved 2026-09-21T17:46:39.701Z.