NYC02LA136 · Stinson 108-2
Stinson 108-2 · Accident: loss of engine power during takeoff
From Lincoln Park Airport (N07) to Warwick Municipal Airport (N72)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's aircraft involved. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC02LA136
- 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
Stinson 108-2 Possible conflict
- Aircraft type
- Stinson 108
- 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
- N390C
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lincoln Park Airport (N07), Lincoln Park, NJTo Warwick Municipal Airport (N72), Warwick, NY
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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 › Aborted takeoff, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot conducted a preflight inspection, started the engine, and performed magneto and carburetor heat checks. He then taxied the airplane about 1,500 feet for takeoff, and had to wait, with the engine at idle, while four other airplanes landed, and the one in front of him took off. Prior to takeoff, the pilot selected takeoff flaps and takeoff trim. During the takeoff roll, the pilot felt the airplane was not accelerating normally, but attributed it to summer temperatures. About 1,000 feet down the runway, the airplane broke ground briefly, then settled back down and became airborne again in about 100 feet. After the pilot subsequently "got it off the ground," he felt that it was not accelerating normally, so he pushed the yoke forward and raised the flaps. The airplane drifted off the left side of the runway and settled into a parked airplane before continuing up an embankment, and coming to rest partially on a road. In a statement provided several months after the accident, the pilot stated that the engine "was not running" when it settled into the parked airplane. Post-accident examination of the airplane revealed no mechanical discrepancies which could have contributed to the accident. The fuel was checked, and found to be clear, blue in color, and absent of debris. A carburetor icing probability chart revealed that ambient conditions during the time of the accident could have resulted in moderate icing at cruise power or serious icing at glide power. According to a maintenance technician, the engine was susceptible to carburetor icing on the ground due to the position of the air intake manifold. After a ground run-up subsequent to the accident, the carburetor box was cold to the touch.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to abort the takeoff when diminished performance was noted. A factor was carburetor icing, accumulated before the takeoff attempt.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC02LA136
- Event ID
- 20020718X01161
- Case number
- NYC02LA136
- 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, coordinates. 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: 5268a372596984cc4cd465f91286213d25a3531555484b08d3805d0eae5fa0d3; retrieved 2026-09-21T19:40:30.430Z.