ERA09LA239 · Diamond DA20 C1
Wings of Eagles School of Flight Diamond DA20 C1 · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) during initial climb
From Smyrna Airport (MQY) to Smyrna Airport (MQY)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA09LA239
- 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
Diamond DA20 C1
- Aircraft type
- Diamond DA20
- 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
- N964CT
- Operator
- Wings of Eagles School of Flight
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Smyrna Airport (MQY), Smyrna, TNTo Smyrna Airport (MQY), Smyrna, TN
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The student pilot was practicing stop-and-go landings on runway 36 under the supervision of his flight instructor. Shortly after the fourth takeoff, a reduction in engine power was observed with the throttle in the full open position. The instructor took control of the airplane and attempted a left hand turn to land on runway 18. The engine did not regain full power and a forced landing was made on airport property, short of runway 18. The airplane collided with a drainage ditch during the landing and was substantially damaged. Examination of the airframe and engine did not reveal any evidence of a pre-existing mechanical malfunction or failure. During a post-accident test run, the engine started normally and produced rated horsepower with no hesitation or interruption in power.
Probable cause
A partial loss of engine power for an undetermined reason.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA09LA239
- Event ID
- 20090413X50303
- Case number
- ERA09LA239
- 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: ca2617cbb7ff0d0779f7bc07ce115d49c7c18a5021ecc778d72c361b3ba14fe7; retrieved 2026-09-15T10:55:44.921Z.