WPR19FA251 · Piper PA18 150
PA-18 Piper PA18 150 · Accident: loss of engine power (total) during takeoff
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR19FA251
- 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
- 2 · 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 PA18 150
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA18
- 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
- N14365
- Operator
- PA-18
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 45 years (built 1974)
- 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 (total)
- 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 systems
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Witnesses observed the airplane takeoff, and one witness noted its nose-high attitude during takeoff. They then heard the engine lose power. The airplane subsequently pitched down and began a rotation to the right before impacting the ground just north of the runway. First responders reported that the fuel selector valve was found in the OFF position when they arrived at the accident site, and they also noted fuel leaking from the airplane. Further examination of the airplane revealed the fuel selector indicator plate displayed a red witness mark adjacent to the fuel selector pointer under one of the OFF-indicator marks, which is an indication the selector was in the OFF position at the time of impact. No evidence of mechanical malfunctions or failures were identified that would have precluded normal operation. Because the engine lost power during takeoff, it is possible that there was enough residual fuel in the fuel lines to start the engine and taxi to the runway, even with the selector in the OFF position. The private pilot was seated in the front seat and the certified flight instructor was seated in the rear seat. The fuel selector was located on the left cabin wall closest to the private pilot; it is likely the private pilot failed to check the position before takeoff. When the airplane departed, it was about 21 pounds over the maximum takeoff weight. An increase in the airplane’s weight would have an adverse effect on stability and controllability. Because the airplane was already in a nose-high attitude when the engine lost power, the airplane likely stalled. The increased weight and low altitude when the power loss occurred prevented the pilots from recovering. Postmortem toxicology testing detected quinine in the certified flight instructor’s blood and urine at a level that was not quantified; therefore, the amount detected was likely from a tonic drink containing quinine rather than ingestion of the drug and would not have been impairing.
Probable cause
The total loss of engine power shortly after takeoff as a result of the private pilot’s failure to ensure the fuel selector was in the appropriate position and the certified flight instructor’s exceedance of the airplane’s critical angle of attack at the time of the engine power loss, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall and loss of airplane control.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR19FA251
- Event ID
- 20190906X45558
- Case number
- WPR19FA251
- 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, cause areas. 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: d5a6ffa47b3844bb693d3771f7b25ed18ddb3f10fcd5f090f5342ee38a424fba; retrieved 2026-09-15T07:04:52.379Z.