CEN14FA400 · Larry Ketterling FEW P-51 MUSTANG
Larry Ketterling FEW P-51 MUSTANG · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) en route
From Lisbon Municipal Airport (6L3) to Lisbon Municipal Airport (6L3)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN14FA400
- 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
Larry Ketterling FEW P-51 MUSTANG
- Aircraft type
- Larry Ketterling FEW P-51 MUSTANG
- 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
- N116LK
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lisbon Municipal Airport (6L3), Lisbon, NDTo Lisbon Municipal Airport (6L3), Lisbon, ND
- Aircraft age
- About 3 years (built 2011)
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Not determined › Not determined
- 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
The private pilot was conducting a local flight in the experimental amateur-built airplane. Recorded flight data showed that about 2 minutes before the end of the flight, the airplane's airspeed began to decrease, which was followed by a decrease in altitude. Engine parameters were not recorded. Multiple witnesses reported hearing unusual engine sounds coming from the airplane. One witness reported that the airplane's nose rose slightly, and then the airplane rolled and began a slow spin toward the ground. The witness lost sight of the airplane as it went behind a tree line, and a few seconds later, he saw a plume of smoke. Postaccident examination of the airplane revealed no anomalies with regard to the airframe or flight control system. Engine crankshaft and valve train continuity was confirmed. The engine was a converted automobile engine and used electronic ignition and fuel injection components. Testing of the ignition and fuel injection systems was not possible due to the extensive impact and postcrash fire damage.
Based on the recorded flight data and witness observations, the airplane's engine lost partial power, resulting in the pilot's inability to maintain the airplane's altitude. As the airplane descended, the pilot allowed the airplane's airspeed to decrease to the point where the wing's angle-of-attack exceeded its critical angle-of-attack, resulting in an aerodynamic stall followed by a spin. The stall/spin occurred at an altitude that was too low for recovery. The reason for the loss of engine power could not be determined based on the available evidence.
Probable cause
The partial loss of engine power for a reason that could not be determined because of extensive impact and postcrash fire damage, and the pilot's failure to maintain adequate airspeed, which resulted in the airplane's wing exceeding its critical angle-of-attack and a subsequent aerodynamic stall/spin.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN14FA400
- Event ID
- 20140801X83002
- Case number
- CEN14FA400
- 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, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2014-08-01.
- API snapshot SHA-256: de344141b50da27362f3a2e198b1bff8af5b892019cf0908279597d3f78f3459; retrieved 2026-09-14T17:22:59.790Z.