CEN16LA061 · Globe GC 1B
Globe GC 1B · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) during initial climb
From Lake Elmo Airport (21D) to Lake Elmo Airport (21D)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN16LA061
- 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
- 0
- 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
Globe GC 1B
- Aircraft type
- Globe GC-1
- 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
- N78067
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lake Elmo Airport (21D), Lake Elmo, MNTo Lake Elmo Airport (21D), Lake Elmo, MN
- Aircraft age
- About 69 years (built 1946)
- 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 systems
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 reported that, before departure, he performed an engine run-up with carburetor heat applied, and no anomalies were noted. The pilot departed for the personal local flight, and when the airplane reached about 100 ft above ground level, the engine power decreased from 2,400 to 1,600 rpm, so he executed a forced landing to a field.
A postaccident examination of the airplane and engine revealed that the throttle body separated from the air intake manifold due to overload likely associated with impact. The fuel nozzle and primary venturi were missing from the carburetor and were not located. Although the engine could likely have started without these components installed, it is unlikely that it could have produced much more than idle power. Sliding marks on the sides of the throttle body revealed evidence of contact with the legs of the primary venturi. The contact marks had areas free of black deposits whereas areas adjacent to the marks were covered with deposits, indicating that a primary venturi had been installed until recently. The deposits on either side of the marks were not disturbed, indicating that the primary venturi did not rotate out of position; therefore, the primary venturi either fractured in service or was separated and lost from the throttle body after the carburetor was disassembled during the initial postaccident examination.
The Federal Aviation Administration had previously issued an airworthiness directive (AD), which required that the accident make and model carburetor be inspected at each annual, 100-hour, or progressive inspection to determine if the primary venturi was loose or missing. According to the maintenance logbooks, the last inspection conducted in accordance with the AD occurred about 1.5 months and 1 flight hour before the accident.
Although the weather conditions at the time of the accident were conducive to the formation of carburetor icing at cruise power, it is not likely that carburetor ice caused the venturi or fuel nozzle to break because the pilot had used carburetor heat during the run up and the engine was operating at takeoff power. The accident is consistent with a loss of engine power due to the carburetor's primary venturi, fuel nozzle, or both separating after takeoff. The reason for the separation could not be determined.
Probable cause
A loss of engine power due to the carburetor’s primary venturi, fuel nozzle, or both separating after takeoff.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN16LA061
- Event ID
- 20151211X65346
- Case number
- CEN16LA061
- 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: 95523650fb0811a80bb1853f32a15b3d744455c95484fcd399f63334065cadba; retrieved 2026-09-16T03:01:30.876Z.