CHI06LA263 · Piper PA-28-140
Piper PA-28-140 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during takeoff
From Chicago Executive Airport (PWK) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI06LA263
- 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-28-140
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N560DH
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Chicago Executive Airport (PWK), CHICAGO/PROSPEC, ILTo 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
- 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 (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
- Flightcrew › Carburetor heat, not used
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Planning/decision, inadequate
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 sustained substantial damage when it impacted trees and terrain after an engine failure after takeoff at about 150 feet above ground level. The CFI stated, "Normal takeoff ... At approximately 150 [feet above ground level] engine began developing less than full power. Unable to maintain altitude. Maneuvered to avoid houses and property. Last choice available - fly into tree." The student pilot stated, "At [about 150 feet above ground level] aircraft stopped climbing and CFI took over the controls. He checked the throttle, made sure it was fully applied. At that point aircraft was slowing down and loosing airspeed, altitude. Rpm's dropped to [about] 2300. Carburetor heat was not used during a flight." An on-scene examination of the wreckage revealed no pre-impact anomalies. The carburetor heat lever was found in the off position. The local temperature and dew point at the time of the accident were plotted on a Transport Canada carburetor-icing chart. Their intersection fell in the moderate icing-cruise power or serious icing-descent power area.
Probable cause
The partial loss of engine power during takeoff due to the flight crews failure to use carburetor heat and the flight instructor's inadequate planning/decision. A factor was the unsuitable terrain for a forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI06LA263
- Event ID
- 20060922X01374
- Case number
- CHI06LA263
- 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: eacca50a5419ff4aae484c5411b1727cf491178ddd10d8fa49e39380b4139f80; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:41:01.265Z.