CEN09LA502 · Cessna 337F
Cessna 337F · Accident during takeoff
From Frankfort Dow Memorial Field (FKS) to Washington Island Airport (2P2)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN09LA502
- 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
Cessna 337F
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 337
- 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
- N337BA
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Frankfort Dow Memorial Field (FKS), Frankfort, MITo Washington Island Airport (2P2), Washington Isld, WI
- 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
- 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
- Miscellaneous/other
- 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 oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane was observed taxiing from the ramp to the runway with its rear engine not running and the rear propeller appearing to be feathered. The witness who observed this also saw the airplane begin its takeoff run on the runway, where it lifted off, appeared to stay low in ground effect, and then started a shallow climb. The airplane appeared very low over the trees at the end of the runway, and then appeared to stall and hit the trees. Earlier, another witness, who was preparing to depart himself, said he saw the pilot working on the airplane's rear engine. The witness stated that the pilot told him that an oil leak was coming from the flange where the oil filter attached and that it was a significant leak. The witness asked the pilot if he needed a local mechanic and the pilot explained he wanted to do the work himself. The pilot said he planned to get enough oil pressure in the rear engine to feather the propeller. The pilot stated that he planned to depart with only the front engine. An examination of the airplane wreckage and the engines revealed no evidence of any pre-impact anomalies, other than what was noted with the rear engine. A placard in the airplane stated, “Do not initiate single engine takeoff.”
Probable cause
The pilot intentionally attempting to take off with an inoperative engine, which lead to the airplane's inability to maintain airspeed in the initial climb, resulting in a stall and impact with trees.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN09LA502
- Event ID
- 20090806X65549
- Case number
- CEN09LA502
- 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: caf0291410a8e11b9c7c9032458611eafb3ff4877a1ab05025630f85f6d5a825; retrieved 2026-09-15T12:45:50.328Z.