NYC06LA193 · Piper PA-25
Piper PA-25 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) while maneuvering
From Dix Field (0NJ6) to Dix Field (0NJ6)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC06LA193
- 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-25
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-25
- 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
- N6471Z
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Dix Field (0NJ6), Linwood, NJTo Dix Field (0NJ6), NJ
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
After performing a banner-towing flight, the pilot returned to a field to drop the banner. He reduced power as he initiated a descent to the field, and just prior to releasing the banner, the pilot increased the throttle to arrest the descent, and initiated a climb. As the pilot increased the throttle, he experienced "little or no positive reaction from the engine." He released the banner and the airplane continued to descend. The pilot prepared for a forced landing to the field, during which the airplane impacted a tree and caught fire. Examination of the airplane and engine revealed no mechanical anomalies. Additionally, the carburetor heat was in the "off" position. The closest weather reporting station to the accident site, approximately 6 miles to the north, recorded the temperature and dew point as 34 degrees Celsius (C), and 22 degrees C, respectively. Interpolation of an FAA carburetor icing probability chart, revealed the conditions were conducive to carburetor ice at glide and cruise power settings. According to the FAA Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, during closed-throttle operations, carburetor heat should be adjusted to the full ON position before closing the throttle and left on during the closed-throttle operation. The Handbook additionally states that after a power loss is noticed, immediate action should be taken to eliminate ice already formed in the carburetor, and to prevent further ice formation.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to utilize carburetor heat during the descent, which resulted in the formation of carburetor ice and subsequent engine failure. A factor in the accident was the carburetor icing conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC06LA193
- Event ID
- 20060810X01154
- Case number
- NYC06LA193
- 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: 2d7e77664b17577d2af0922cbb831b85949798d9f42c26309d0bf03c6903ecb4; retrieved 2026-09-21T08:54:52.061Z.