ERA15LA094 · Cessna 172 S
Eads Flight School Cessna 172 S · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) during initial climb
From Hampton Roads Executive Airport (PVG) to Hampton Roads Executive Airport (PVG)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA15LA094
- 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 172 S
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- 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
- N2102P
- Operator
- Eads Flight School
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hampton Roads Executive Airport (PVG), Norfolk, VATo Hampton Roads Executive Airport (PVG), Norfolk, VA
- Aircraft age
- About 11 years (built 2004)
- 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)
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Tree(s)
- 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
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The designated pilot examiner (DPE) and student pilot were conducting a private pilot check ride. The DPE reported that, during climbout, he retarded the throttle to simulate an engine failure. The student attempted to recover the airplane by lowering its nose to maintain controlled flight. However, the airplane descended. The DPE terminated the simulated engine failure, took control of the airplane, and attempted to recover full engine power, but the engine remained at idle power, and the airplane descended into trees. A postaccident examination of the airframe and engine revealed no mechanical malfunctions or failures, and the engine was test run with no anomalies noted. The reason for the engine's failure to regain full power could not be determined.
Probable cause
The engine’s failure to regain full power after a simulated engine failure for reasons that could not be determined during postaccident examinations and testing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA15LA094
- Event ID
- 20150107X60158
- Case number
- ERA15LA094
- 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: 9b1d81cf5a0d8289806783747981fb61cf65f60de7dfb7ea7890f8caa8267c6e; retrieved 2026-09-16T02:01:15.896Z.