CHI06CA167 · Cessna 170A
Cessna 170A · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Greenville Airport (GRE) to Atwood, IL
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI06CA167
- 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 170A
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 170
- 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
- N9204A
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Greenville Airport (GRE), Greenville, ILTo Atwood, IL
- 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 final
- 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)
- 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
- Fuel system, carburetor › Ice
- Terrain condition › Rough/uneven
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 substantially damaged when it nosed over during a forced landing following a loss of engine power. The pilot sustained minor injuries. The pilot stated that the airplane was approximately 3 miles from the intended destination when the engine abruptly lost power. She noted that the propeller initially stopped and then began to windmill. She recalled checking the oil pressure and temperature indications, which were both within the green arc. The pilot reported that she applied carburetor heat after the loss of engine power with no effect. She stated that the airplane was outside of power-off gliding distance to the airport and she set-up for a forced landing to a soybean field below the aircraft. The pilot landed successfully; however, she was unable to stop prior to reaching the edge of the field. The airplane encountered an 8-inch rise at the edge of the field and nosed over. A post accident inspection did not reveal any anomalies consistent with a loss of engine power. The engine was subsequently test run. The engine ran smoothly and no discrepancies in its operation were observed. The temperature and dew point in the vicinity of the accident site were 26 degrees and 15 degrees Celsius, respectively. Data indicated the possibility of moderate carburetor icing at cruise power and serious icing at descent power under those conditions.
Probable cause
The loss of engine power during approach due to carburetor ice and the uneven terrain encountered during the forced landing which caused the airplane to nose over. Weather conducive to carburetor icing was a contributing factor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI06CA167
- Event ID
- 20060728X01044
- Case number
- CHI06CA167
- 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: cb097d2d6fbbf47280af60b7924dc99049c7b0dac8e9f597be52fd0bb36de588; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:44:35.000Z.