CHI04LA014 · Croke Zenith CH 701
Croke Zenith CH 701 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Brussels, WI (private airstrip) to Private airstrip
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI04LA014
- 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
Croke Zenith CH 701
- Aircraft type
- Croke ZENITH CH 701
- 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
- N701US
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Brussels, WI (private airstrip)To Private airstrip
- 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 · VFR go-around
- 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)
- 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 from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The experimental amateur built airplane collided with trees during a forced landing following a go-around on runway 18 (1,000 feet by 20 feet, grass). The pilot stated he was not happy with the approach so he initiated a go-around from an altitude of about 15 feet above the ground. He reported the engine only produced about 4,000 rpm instead of the normal 5,300 rpm when he applied full power. The pilot reported he was unable to sustain a climb with the reduced power and the airplane settled into trees in a wooded area off the south end of the airstrip. The airplane was powered by a Rotax 912 UL, 80 horsepower engine. The engine had accumulated about 100 hours when the pilot purchased it with an additional 2 hours since it was installed on the accident airplane. On the NTSB Form 6120.1/2, the pilot reported there were no mechanical malfunctions or failures.
Probable cause
A partial loss of engine power for undetermined reasons.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI04LA014
- Event ID
- 20031017X01760
- Case number
- CHI04LA014
- 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: fff0d609793d5430741f1ccdd7aad7b3da0bc08136b2348ce54922db42b74670; retrieved 2026-09-22T08:19:34.323Z.