CHI04CA108 · Piper PA-18-150
Piper PA-18-150 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From Crystal Airport (MIC) to Maple Lake Municipal Airport (MGG)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI04CA108
- 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
Piper PA-18-150
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-18
- 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
- N82943
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Crystal Airport (MIC), Minneapolis, MNTo Maple Lake Municipal Airport (MGG), Maple Lake, MN
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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; Pole; 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
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Fuel system, selector/valve › Closed
- Pilot in command › Fuel tank selector position, not verified
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane impacted a power pole and trees during a forced landing after a loss of engine power during initial climb. According to the pilot, prior to the accident flight the airplane was completely fueled and fuel samples he took during the aircraft preflight were not contaminated with water. The pilot stated the airplane was taxied on the right main fuel tank, and he switched to the left fuel tank prior to takeoff as required by the pilot operating handbook. The pilot reported that he experienced an uneventful takeoff ground run, rotation, and initial climb until approximately 150 feet above ground level (agl) when the engine lost power suddenly. The pilot reported he switched fuel tank positions, verified the magneto switch was on both, and the throttle and mixture controls were fully advanced. The pilot reported, "Because of the suddenness and completeness of the loss of [engine] power, I suspected either fuel starvation or an ignition problem." The pilot stated, "I changed the tank selector at least two more times, and got ready to crash." The pilot stated that a landing on the departure runway was not an option and he maneuvered the airplane in between two houses prior to striking a power pole and several trees. A first responder reported the fuel selector was found in the "off" position upon his arrival at the accident site. The pilot reportedly said he did not reposition the fuel selector after the accident. The engine was subjected to an operational test-run. The engine started without hesitation and ran at idle power (~700 rpm) without any anomalies. The engine responded to brief throttle increases (~1,200 rpm) prior to being shutdown. The engine was not run above 1,200 rpm due to a damaged propeller.
Probable cause
The pilot not verifying the position of the fuel selector prior to the takeoff, resulting in the loss of engine power during initial climb due to fuel starvation. Factors to the accident were the power pole and the trees.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI04CA108
- Event ID
- 20040426X00512
- Case number
- CHI04CA108
- 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: b402c231d8bfe79df5053d408a465738a6ddeb49623591b3e0caa6c806ffb2b0; retrieved 2026-09-21T19:15:36.828Z.