CEN10LA429 · Warth Dennis J Classic Sport S-18
Baloun Aviation Warth Dennis J Classic Sport S-18 · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) during initial climb
From Marv Skie / Lincoln County Airport (Y14) to Marv Skie / Lincoln County Airport (Y14)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN10LA429
- 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
- 1 · 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
Warth Dennis J Classic Sport S-18
- Aircraft type
- Warth Dennis CLASSIC SPORT S-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
- N216TB
- Operator
- Baloun Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Marv Skie / Lincoln County Airport (Y14), Tea, SDTo Marv Skie / Lincoln County Airport (Y14), Tea, SD
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft power plant
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A witness reported that the pilot was flying a maintenance test flight because the airplane engine’s carburetor was replaced with a fuel injection system and a new air filter system was installed. The engine appeared to be developing full power during the takeoff roll. When the airplane was about 500 feet above ground level (agl), it made a left crosswind turn. The witness reported seeing a brief puff of black smoke coming from the engine exhaust. The airplane then entered a descending left turn before encountering a full stall about 100 to 150 feet agl. The airplane impacted a cornfield near the airport in about a 60- to 70-degree nose-down, inverted attitude. Postaccident inspection of the airframe revealed no preimpact anomalies. The inspection of the engine and fuel injection system revealed no preimpact anomalies; however, the mechanical fuel pump and both magnetos were broken by impact forces and could not be tested. No other anomalies were found with the airplane.
Probable cause
A loss of engine power for undetermined reasons and the pilot's loss of airplane control, which led to an aerodynamic stall.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN10LA429
- Event ID
- 20100725X03807
- Case number
- CEN10LA429
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2010-07-24.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 3582b38d4ef40ded87401567503e337cd4768564708aa9d625df6e78e7eb4924; retrieved 2026-09-13T20:57:41.966Z.