ERA11LA093 · Cessna 182 P
Cessna 182 P · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) during takeoff
From Greenwood Lake Airport (4N1) to Greenwood Lake Airport (4N1)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA11LA093
- 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 182 P
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 182
- 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
- N1462M
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Greenwood Lake Airport (4N1), West Milford, NJTo Greenwood Lake Airport (4N1), West Milford, NJ
- 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
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
**This report was modified on January 21, 2014. Please see the public docket for this accident to view the original report.**
The pilot conducted a preflight inspection that included procedures to ensure removal of accumulated water before flight. Due to the cold temperature, the pilot requested an engine pre-heat service, which was applied for an estimated 15 minutes. There were no abnormalities during the engine start, taxi, and engine run-up before takeoff. During the takeoff climb, the pilot reduced power to the cruise/climb setting. At an altitude of about 1,500 feet above ground level, the engine sustained a partial loss of power; the pilot then applied carburetor heat and elected to return to the departure airport. While returning to the airport, the airplane entered an aerodynamic stall, impacting the ground adjacent the runway. A postaccident examination did not reveal any discrepancies that would have prevented normal operation of the airplane or its systems.
A postaccident examination revealed a chunk of ice with debris frozen in the gascolator fuel bowl; however, the ice chunk was not large enough to block the fuel flow to the engine. Further examination revealed no water in the carburetor. The closest official weather observation station, about 14 miles west of the accident site, reported the temperature as 4 degrees Celsius (C) and the dew point as minus 1 degrees C about 35 minutes after the accident. Based on the ambient temperature and the dew point, serious carburetor icing conditions were possible at cruise power.
The airplane's Pilot Operating Handbook (POH), in the cold weather operation section, states that "appropriate use of carburetor heat is recommended . . . . Full carburetor heat may be required for temperatures below -12 [degrees] C whereas partial heat could be used in temperatures between -12 [degrees] C and 4 [degrees] C . . . . Use the minimum carburetor heat required for smooth operation in take-off, climb, and cruise." The investigation determined that the pilot's application of carburetor heat was not consistent with guidance in the POH, and carburetor icing developed because of the pilot's delay in applying carburetor heat.
Probable cause
The pilot's delayed application of carburetor heat while taking off in weather conditions conducive to serious carburetor icing, which resulted in a partial loss of engine power.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA11LA093
- Event ID
- 20101219X90605
- Case number
- ERA11LA093
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Source notes (5)
- 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: 1fbc35f3ddfa69f52c10eefaa13058174237986048ded57564761962fd126fad; retrieved 2026-09-15T15:38:00.743Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: departure, destination. Incomplete city name; 4N1 is Greenwood Lake Airport, West Milford, NJ, which the location field also records. Incomplete city name; 4N1 is Greenwood Lake Airport, West Milford, NJ, which the location field also records.