CEN16LA394 · Piper PA 22-108
Piper PA 22-108 · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) during initial climb
From Pearland Regional Airport (LVJ) to Pearland Regional Airport (LVJ)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN16LA394
- 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
Piper PA 22-108
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-22
- 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
- N4920Z
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Pearland Regional Airport (LVJ), Pearland, TXTo Pearland Regional Airport (LVJ), Pearland, TX
- Aircraft age
- About 55 years (built 1961)
- 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 private pilot reported that he had completed a preflight inspection and filled the fuel tanks before taxiing to the runway for takeoff. He checked his instruments and performed an engine run-up; the tachometer indicating 1,800-1,900 rpm. He checked his magnetos and carburetor heat. Everything seemed okay. He lined up on the runway and then advanced the throttle; everything seemed okay. At 65 mph, he "pulled back" and took off. About 100-200 ft agl, the pilot noticed the rpm was about 1,800 and not increasing. Additionally, the airplane was not gaining any altitude. The pilot turned back toward the airport and tried to maneuver to make an emergency landing in a rough, vegetated field. During the approach to the field, the pilot avoided a house and a barn before the left wing contacted a tree and the airplane subsequently impacted the ground nose-first. A postcrash examination of the airframe and engine at the accident site did not reveal any preimpact anomalies. The atmospheric conditions at the time of the accident were conducive to the development of light carburetor icing at cruise or descent power, or borderline serious icing at descent power. According to the airplane Owner's Manual, to takeoff, advance the throttle to full power and allow the airplane to accelerate. Apply back pressure on the control wheel to lift the nose wheel at 65 mph. Once airborne, lower the nose to climb at the best rate of climb, 75 mph. With a fixed pitch propeller, 75 percent power can be maintained up to 7,000 ft. by increasing rpm as altitude is increased The maximum continuous rpm for the airplane is 2,600. Per the engine Operator's Manual, for takeoff at performance cruise power, 75 percent rated, the rpm should be 2,350.
Probable cause
A partial loss of engine power during takeoff for reasons that could not be determined based on the available information following a thorough postaccident examination.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN16LA394
- Event ID
- 20161006X20121
- Case number
- CEN16LA394
- 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: 18228bca42bde45f8990300023722f3765898224fbf27c5235abd3a416f32680; retrieved 2026-09-16T04:21:41.077Z.