ERA09LA221 · T51 Inc. T51
T51 Inc. T51 · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) en route
From Treasure Coast International Airport (FPR) to South Lakeland Airport (X49)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA09LA221
- 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
T51 Inc. T51
- Aircraft type
- T51 T51
- 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
- N332BC
- Operator
- Craig M. Muth · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Treasure Coast International Airport (FPR), Fort Pierce, FLTo South Lakeland Airport (X49), Mulberry, FL
- 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
- En route · cruise
- Defining eventThe 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 (partial)
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft power plant
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot of the amateur-built airplane stated he was in cruise flight at 700 feet when the engine appeared to reduce to idle power. He pulled the throttle back initially, and then applied power, and the engine appeared to respond to the throttle application. The pilot began maneuvering for a forced landing to a highway, but during the process the engine reduced to idle power again, requiring the pilot to land in a field instead. On touchdown, the main landing gear separated and the airplane came to rest in a nose-down position. Examination of the engine revealed that the carburetor was loose from its mounting pad, which could result in a partial or total loss of engine power. The owner of the airplane stated that the last condition inspection on the airplane was completed about 1 year prior to the accident and that he did not verify that the carburetor was properly installed.
Probable cause
A partial loss of engine power due to the carburetor not being secured to its mounting pad.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA09LA221
- Event ID
- 20090330X12129
- Case number
- ERA09LA221
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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. 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: 447ac9b733ef556f05523bd5acc0fc0cea270346b366c5b684695b5c5a056d84; retrieved 2026-09-15T10:53:17.066Z.