CHI01LA196 · Cessna 150L
Cessna 150L · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Manhattan Regional Airport (MHK) to Manhattan Regional Airport (MHK)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI01LA196
- 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
- Unknown
- 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 150L
- 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
- N5272Q
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Manhattan Regional Airport (MHK), Manhattan, KSTo Manhattan Regional Airport (MHK), Manhattan, KS
- 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
- 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
- Pilot in command › Unsuitable terrain or takeoff/landing/taxi area, encountered
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
While in cruise flight the engine began to lose power and the pilot preformed a forced landing into a field. During landing rollout the airplane impacted uneven terrain and the nose gear collapsed. The airplane and its engine were subjected to a post-accident examination. Five gallons of uncontaminated aviation fuel were drained from the airplane. Uncontaminated fuel was drained from the carburetor and fuel gascolator. The carburetor was disassembled and the bowl was not contaminated. The fuel filter screen was not contaminated. Engine continuity was established throughout the engine and its accessories by rotating the crankshaft at the propeller flange. There was compression on all four cylinders and both magnetos provided spark on all leads. The oil filter was removed/disassembled and was not contaminated. The induction system was inspected and no contamination or obstructions were found in the air-filter or scat ducting. There was evidence of a fuel spill at the accident site. No anomalies were found with the airframe or its engine that could be associated with any pre-impact condition.
Probable cause
The unsuitable terrain encountered by the pilot during the forced landing. Factors to the accident were the loss of engine power for undetermined reasons and the rough/uneven terrain condition.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI01LA196
- Event ID
- 20010705X01311
- Case number
- CHI01LA196
- 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: 350f3ebca7ccf114fc9f47f196a951756ccffd9d47714eba134a857d16723fb7; retrieved 2026-09-22T11:50:10.885Z.