CHI84FA063 · Cessna 150M
Cessna 150M · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Purdue University Airport (LAF) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI84FA063
- 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
- 1 · 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 150M
- 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
- N63398
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Purdue University Airport (LAF), Lafayette, INTo 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
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Fuel starvation
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Ice
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Altitude, misjudged
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT HAD BEEN WX BRIEFED & FILED A FLIGHT PLAN AT THE LAFAYETTE FSS. ABOUT 1 HR LATER HE RETURNED TO THE FSS & ASKED IF THE FSS HAD HEARD HIM CALLING ON 119.6. HE WAS ADVISED THAT HE HAD NOT BEEN HEARD. THE PLT STATED HE WOULD TRY TO CALL WHEN AIRBORNE. ON 12/20 THE WRECKAGE WAS FOUND IN AN OPEN SNOW COVERED FIELD. THE ACFT HAD IMPACTED THE GROUND IN A FAIRLY FLAT ATTITUDE WITH A LITTLE RIGHT WING LOW BUT AT A HIGH RATE OF SPEED & VERTICAL SINK RATE. THE ACFT WAS MOVEDTO A HANGAR & INSPECTED. NO FUEL WAS FOUND IN THE CARBURETOR BOWL, BUT ICE SUBSTANCE WAS FOUND IN THE FINGER SCREEN WHICH MELTED IMMEDIATELY. WATER WAS FOUND IN THE T-DRAIN AT THE BOTTOM OF THE FUSELAGE, WITH SIGNS OF CORROSION ON THE ALUMINUM FITTING. THE PLT HAD ONLY 1 HR FLT TIME IN THE C-150 DURING THE LAST 90 DAYS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI84FA063
- Event ID
- 20001214X45242
- Case number
- CHI84FA063
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1983-12-17.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 9afb24dfb895e2764cc49c9bdfc0b1764c08ead41458f94167660e5b885d2f4f; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:44:01.401Z.