IAD04LA035 · Giles Mustang II
Giles Mustang II · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) on approach
From Rainelle Airport (WV30) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- IAD04LA035
- 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
Giles Mustang II
- Aircraft type
- Giles MUSTANG
- 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
- N91061
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Rainelle Airport (WV30), Rainelle, WVTo 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
- Approach · VFR pattern base
- 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 (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Throttle/power lever, cable › Loose part/bolt/nut/clamp/etc
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 of the homebuilt airplane reduced power on the downwind leg of the traffic pattern to initiate a low approach to the runway. The airplane was on final approach when the pilot attempted to add power to maintain his desired glide path. When he pushed the throttle lever forward, there was no response from the engine. Remedial actions by the pilot failed to restore control of the engine. During the subsequent forced landing to a field, the engine continued to run at the reduced power setting. On short final to the field, he noticed a dead tree with no foliage in his path, but determined that his altitude and airspeed were too low to maneuver around it. The airplane struck the tree, contacted the ground, spun around, and came to rest facing opposite the direction of travel. Examination of the throttle control after the accident revealed a separation of the throttle cable outer sheath and the inner throttle cable. When forward movement was applied to the throttle control, the inner cable bowed, and did not transfer forward motion to the throttle arm.
Probable cause
The partial loss of engine power due to a broken throttle mechanism, which resulted in a forced landing over unsuitable terrain
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record IAD04LA035
- Event ID
- 20040818X01249
- Case number
- IAD04LA035
- 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: 335bc23645a07f9173c374f1824d0fd9bf9e9ab6746e2d4c7fbffa94659014b7; retrieved 2026-09-21T09:14:17.254Z.