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WPR16LA106 · Boeing B75N1

11 May 2016 · Winslow, AZ, United States

Boeing B75N1 · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) during initial climb

From Winslow Lindbergh Regional Airport (INW) to Phoenix, AZ

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Event

NTSB case
WPR16LA106
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

Boeing B75N1

Aircraft type
Boeing B75
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
N56200
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Winslow Lindbergh Regional Airport (INW), Winslow, AZTo Phoenix, AZ
Aircraft age
About 73 years (built 1943)
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

  • Not determined › Not determined

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, earlier in the day, she had flown three flights, totaling about 5 hours of flight time, which included uneventful takeoffs from two airports with a higher density altitude than that which existed at the accident airport; the calculated density altitude at the time of the accident was about 7,223 ft.

The pilot reported that, before takeoff for the accident flight, she conducted an engine run-up and pretakeoff checks, which included leaning the mixture to account for the density altitude. She also conducted a static-power check, which was in the normal range. The pilot reported that, during takeoff for the personal cross-country flight, the airplane accelerated and climbed out normally with the tachometer indicating 2,250 rpm. As the airplane climbed to about 50 ft above ground level, the engine began to lose power, and the airplane started to descend. The pilot turned the airplane left to maintain clearance from obstacles and verified the throttle, mixture, propeller, fuel, and carburetor heat settings. Subsequently, the airplane struck the ground and rolled about 20 ft, the right main landing gear impacted vegetation, and the airplane cart-wheeled. The pilot reported that, just before landing, she observed the tachometer indicating 2,000 rpm.

It is likely that the engine's partial loss of power, in combination with the high-density altitude, prevented the airplane from being able to maintain a positive climb rate during takeoff. Postaccident examination of the airplane and engine run did not reveal any evidence of any preexisting anomalies that would have precluded normal operation; therefore, the reason for the partial loss of engine power could not be determined.

Probable cause

The partial loss of engine power during takeoff initial climb in high-density altitude conditions for reasons that could not be determined because a postaccident examination of the airplane and engine revealed no anomalies.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record WPR16LA106
Event ID
20160511X13726
Case number
WPR16LA106
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 2016-05-12.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: f85af1565742a617ba924c2b0424adb7623ba6fbff4fda1d50dcff1d0b5438de; retrieved 2026-09-16T03:22:43.113Z.