CHI07CA112 · PZL Warzawa-CNPSL PZL-104 Wilga 35A
PZL Warzawa-CNPSL PZL-104 Wilga 35A · Accident: loss of engine power during takeoff
From Waukesha County Airport (UES) to Waukesha County Airport (UES)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI07CA112
- 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
PZL Warzawa-CNPSL PZL-104 Wilga 35A
- Aircraft type
- PZL Warzawa Cnpsl PZL-104
- 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
- N231E
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Waukesha County Airport (UES), Waukesha, WITo Waukesha County Airport (UES)
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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 › Operation with known deficiencies in equipment, attempted
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
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 nosed-down in a cornfield during a forced landing following a loss of engine power shortly after takeoff. The local flight originally departed at 1215 and proceeded about 12 miles southwest of the departure airport before the airplane experienced a loss of engine power. The pilot landed in a cornfield without incident. The pilot stated that he restarted the engine and elected to take-off after finding "nothing apparently wrong" with the magnetos and fuel gauges. After takeoff, at an altitude of 150 feet, the airplane experienced a loss of engine power for a second time. The pilot reported that he performed a forced landing to another cornfield, but the cornfield rows were perpendicular to the landing path and the airplane nosed-down after touchdown. The airplane reportedly had 30 gallons of fuel on board at the original time of departure. Investigation of the airplane and accident site did not reveal evidence indicative of a fuel spill. The ground was not wet or muddy and there was no discernable fuel smell present at the accident site. Neither of the fuel tanks were breached and there was no evidence of a fuel leak. The fuel sight gauges were examined and no fuel was noticed upon righting the airplane. Several of the fuel lines had been crimped during the accident sequence, but there was no indication of a fuel leak from any of the crimped lines. The fuel tanks were drained and twenty-four ounces of fuel was collected. The pilot's shoe was reportedly recovered from the wreckage and was found filled with fuel.
Probable cause
The pilot's decision to attempt flight following the initial loss of engine power and successful forced landing to a cornfield. An additional cause was the loss of engine power for undetermined reasons. A contributing factor was the furrowed cornfield encountered during the second forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI07CA112
- Event ID
- 20070606X00682
- Case number
- CHI07CA112
- 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: fce738f0aa1fd4fad3c671e172dc2d91652dc1bf2743b24cd5a4f23e4ad382ad; retrieved 2026-09-22T03:53:23.563Z.