CEN18LA299 · Piper PA28 140
Piper PA28 140 · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) during takeoff
From Sackman Field (H49) to Sackman Field (H49)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN18LA299
- 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 PA28 140
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA28
- 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
- N624FL
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sackman Field (H49), Columbia, ILTo Sackman Field (H49), Columbia, IL
- Aircraft age
- About 47 years (built 1971)
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- Wire
- 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 oper/perf/capability
- Aircraft › Aircraft power plant
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During the pilot's departure for the local flight, witnesses observed the airplane climbing at a shallower attitude than normal. The airplane appeared to level off and then contacted transmission lines about 1/2 mile from the departure end of the runway, which resulted in substantial damage to the airplane. A postaccident examination of the engine found fouled sparkplugs in cylinder No. 2 and a compression check of all the cylinders revealed that they were all below 60 psi. Cylinder No. 2 was at 18 psi, and the other three cylinders were about 50 psi. An engine manufacturer's service letter stated if the pressure reading is below 60 psi, removal and overhaul of the cylinders should be considered.
A weight and balance calculation revealed that the airplane was operating near its maximum gross weight.
The circumstances of the accident are consistent with the partial loss of engine power due to low compression in all of the cylinders and fouled sparkplugs in the No. 2 cylinder. The loading of the airplane near its maximum gross weight combined with a reduction in available engine power likely did not allow for the airplane to climb normally.
Probable cause
The airplane's inability to climb due to reduced engine power as a result of insufficient compression in all cylinders and fouled spark plugs in the No. 2 cylinder while operating near its maximum gross weight.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN18LA299
- Event ID
- 20180729X14602
- Case number
- CEN18LA299
- 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: 6de23b75331d5ac687f1df5684ae6678eab2f62b9d239f280de661de540d0ce0; retrieved 2026-09-16T08:01:19.666Z.