GAA19CA126 · Cessna 170 Undesignat
Cessna 170 Undesignat · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) on approach
From Yakima Air Terminal McAllister Field (YKM) to Selah, WA (private airstrip)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA19CA126
- 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 170 Undesignat
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 170
- 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
- N4087V
- Operator
- James C. Bell · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Yakima Air Terminal McAllister Field (YKM), Yakima, WATo Selah, WA (private airstrip)
- Aircraft age
- About 71 years (built 1948)
- 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
- Approach
- 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
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that, while doing pattern work and during his third approach, he turned to the base leg of the traffic pattern, and the engine lost power. He turned the fuel selector to "both," but he was unable to restart the engine. The airplane was equipped with an auxiliary fuel pump, which he did not turn on. Realizing the airplane would not reach the runway, the pilot chose to conduct a forced landing to a field, and during the landing roll, the airplane collided with a fence.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the horizontal stabilizer.
The pilot reported that there were no mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
After the collision, the pilot visually checked both fuel tanks, and each tank contained "ample fuel." He believed that the engine lost power due to carburetor ice because he did not apply carburetor heat during the approach.
The pilot reported that, about the time of the accident, the temperature was 38°F and the dew point was 30°F. Additionally, he recalled that the cloud condition was broken at 3,000 ft. The atmospheric conditions were conducive for moderate carburetor icing at cruise power.
The pilot reported that the accident could have been prevented if he turned on the fuel pump during the takeoffs and landings and if he had turned on the carburetor heat on the downwind before landing.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to use carburetor heat while operating in conditions conducive to carburetor icing, which resulted in a partial loss of engine power and a subsequent forced landing and impact with a fence.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA19CA126
- Event ID
- 20190129X14005
- Case number
- GAA19CA126
- 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: ac55591947dbc1243ed60aaa6e2496f4549a87f409a88b16e8208d83010b4158; retrieved 2026-09-16T08:34:04.693Z.