CEN09LA534 · WSK PZL Mielec M-18A
Miles Flying Service WSK PZL Mielec M-18A · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) during takeoff
From Audubon County Airport (ADU) to Audubon County Airport (ADU)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN09LA534
- 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
WSK PZL Mielec M-18A
- Aircraft type
- WSK PZL Mielec M-18
- 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
- N2065B
- Operator
- Miles Flying Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Audubon County Airport (ADU), Audubon, IATo Audubon County Airport (ADU), Audubon, IA
- 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
- 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 from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot stated that he noticed the engine was “low on power” during the takeoff. However, there was not sufficient runway remaining to reject the takeoff. He added that “at lift off, the engine lost more power” and he was unable to remain airborne. The pilot landed in a corn field about 500 feet from the end of the runway. A teardown examination of the engine revealed that portions of the compressor turbine blades were separated and fragmented. Metallic deposits (“metal splatter”) were observed on the compressor turbine blades, shroud, and guide vanes. Metallurgical examination of the compressor turbine blades did not reveal any material anomalies. No evidence of blade creep was observed. The damage to the compressor turbine, in conjunction with a lack of any material defects, is consistent with a short term exposure to elevated operating temperatures. The reason for the exposure to elevated temperatures was not determined. Damage to the engine power turbine section was likely as a result of the accident sequence.
Probable cause
A loss of engine power due to failure of the compressor turbine resulting from exposure to elevated operating temperatures for undetermined reasons.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN09LA534
- Event ID
- 20090820X03706
- Case number
- CEN09LA534
- 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, 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: 5f5c3def9f4ab24060802a566e814e815a67385eecf6bb03cb13878a1a419212; retrieved 2026-09-15T12:49:13.641Z.