ANC04LA109 · Cessna 140
Cessna 140 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From North Pole, AK to North Pole, AK
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC04LA109
- 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
Cessna 140
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 140
- 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
- N1629V
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From North Pole, AKTo North Pole, AK
- 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
- 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
- Pilot in command › Carburetor heat, not used
- Weather condition › Carburetor icing conditions
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The private pilot reported that during initial climb from a private airstrip, the engine started running rough, losing power, and then quit. He said he checked the throttle and the fuel selector when the engine started to run rough, but did not apply carburetor heat because he knew he would lose engine rpm with the carburetor heat on. When the engine lost all power, he did not have enough altitude to turn back to the runway, or reach a suitable landing site, and he elected to fly the airplane straight ahead, into trees. The pilot said there were no known mechanical anomalies with the airplane prior to the flight. The nearest official weather reporting station was about 15 miles northwest of the accident site. The METAR at 1755 reported 4 miles visibility in light rain, temperature and dew point were both 36 degrees F, and the ceiling was 400 feet broken, 1000 feet overcast. At the accident site, the pilot estimated a 600 foot ceiling, 3 miles visibility, and both temperature and dew point at 36 degrees F. A carburetor icing probability chart is included in the docket of this report. It depicts the potential for carburetor icing at various temperature and dew point combinations. Using the temperature and dew point of 36 F and 36 F, respectively, the chart indicates there is a potential for serious carburetor icing at cruise and climb power settings. FAA Advisory circular 61-23C, Chapter 2, Carburetor Icing, states, in part: "...if the temperature is between -7C (20F) and 21C (70F), with visible moisture or high humidity, the pilot should be constantly on the alert for carburetor ice. During low or closed throttle setting, an engine is particularly susceptible to carburetor icing." The engine was recovered to a maintenance facility, and placed on an engine test stand. The engine and propeller did not require any repair as a result of the accident. The engine was started and run through various power settings. No mechanical anomalies were found.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to use carburetor heat during takeoff/initial climb, which resulted in a total loss of engine power, and an in-flight collision with trees.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC04LA109
- Event ID
- 20040917X01449
- Case number
- ANC04LA109
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2004-09-15.
- API snapshot SHA-256: b75ca439e1fbddf121cf81d2da4dd2e845dc19626ce027be5c8412926327f124; retrieved 2026-09-22T06:43:17.431Z.