CHI04FA234 · Cessna 172E
Cessna 172E · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during takeoff
From Decorah Municipal Airport (DEH) to Isle Private Airport (MY72)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI04FA234
- 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
- 2 · 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 172E
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- 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
- N5410T
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Decorah Municipal Airport (DEH), Decorah, IATo Isle Private Airport (MY72), Isle, 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
- 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
- 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
- Stall/spin
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aborted takeoff, not performed
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not obtained/maintained
- Pilot in command › Operation with known deficiencies in equipment, intentional
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 was destroyed when it impacted the ground about 5 miles north of the departure airport. The pilot received serious injuries and the 2 passengers were fatally injured. The pilot reported that he had no recollection of the flight subsequent to announcing his intention to takeoff on the radio. He made no mention of any discrepancies detected during the pre-flight inspection or the run-up. A witness reported hearing and seeing the accident airplane during taxi, run-up, and takeoff. He stated that the rpm drop during the run-up was very high in comparison to the allowable rpm drop. The witness stated that he saw the takeoff and, based on his experience of operating a similar model airplane, the accident airplane was not accelerating as he would expect. He stated that the sound of the engine was smooth, but that he did not believe that it was developing full power during the takeoff. He further stated that the airplane's acceleration was not fast enough for a normal takeoff. The witness stated that he observed no attempt to stop or slow the airplane. He stated that he observed the airplane rotate twice and then lifted about 3 feet off of the runway before it came back down left wing high and subsequently bounced into the air. He stated that at this point, the airplane was now over the end of the runway. The witness stated that he was alarmed that the airplane was not gaining altitude and he then lost sight of it behind some large trees. He stated that he believed that continued flight would not be possible due to the degraded performance. Postaccident examination of the airplane revealed that the contact points for the left magneto were not opening during rotation of the magneto's input shaft. The mounting screws were able to be turned with minimal effort. The investigation did not reveal when maintenance was last performed on the magneto's points. No other pre-impact discrepencies were found.
Probable cause
The pilot's intentional operation of the airplane with a defective magneto, his failure to abort the takeoff due to degraded aircraft performance, and his failure to obtain or maintain airspeed which resulted in a stall/spin and subsequent impact with the ground. Contributing factors were the improper installation of the magneto's contact points by unknown entities due to undertorque of the mounting screws which led to the loss of engine power.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI04FA234
- Event ID
- 20040826X01294
- Case number
- CHI04FA234
- 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: 7a7e7ebfa5f0457ca2706d1191620f7cb0b48a2d068be56e7ecf3d352674f7f7; retrieved 2026-09-20T18:22:02.617Z.