CEN20LA258 · Piper PA28 140
Piper PA28 140 · Accident: loss of engine power (total) during initial climb
From Bridgeport Municipal Airport (XBP) to Bridgeport Municipal Airport (XBP)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN20LA258
- 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
- N6530W
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Bridgeport Municipal Airport (XBP), Bridgeport, TXTo Bridgeport Municipal Airport (XBP), Bridgeport, TX
- Aircraft age
- About 56 years (built 1964)
- 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 (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 power plant
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported the engine seemed to lose power shortly after takeoff. His attempts to restore engine power were not successful, and he executed a forced landing. A postaccident engine examination revealed evidence of an insect (mud dauber) nest within the carburetor heat induction system.
The pilot purchased the airplane 2 days before the accident. Airplane maintenance records indicated that an annual inspection was completed on the day the airplane was sold to the accident pilot. The records also indicated the airplane had not been flown between the annual inspection in 2017 and the most recent inspection 2 days before the accident. Furthermore, the markings on the oil filter suggested that the oil was not changed during the most recent annual inspection. The airplane was operated 1.16 hours since that most recent inspection.
The insect nest in the carburetor heat system likely became dislodged during airplane operation and subsequently restricted air flow to the carburetor resulting in a loss of engine power. The location of the insect nest was not in an area visible to the pilot during a preflight inspection. However, the presence of the nest could have been detected during a thorough and complete annual maintenance inspection. In addition, the failure of the mechanic to change the engine oil and filter during the most recent annual inspection suggested that the inspection was less than thorough and complete.
Although there was a slight possibility of carburetor icing at glide and cruise power, it is unlikely to have been the cause of the power loss since the loss of engine power occurred shortly after takeoff.
Probable cause
Maintenance personnel’s inadequate inspection, which resulted in a total loss of engine power due to a restricted air intake-induction system.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN20LA258
- Event ID
- 20200702X00420
- Case number
- CEN20LA258
- 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 2020-07-02.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 1652290e6fd185086b9c9a8f845ca667c8641020728d63f6d131efbfda72e70d; retrieved 2026-09-16T11:59:33.521Z.