CEN21LA072 · Grumman G164
Riceland Aviation Grumman G164 · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) during takeoff
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN21LA072
- 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
- Event fatalities
- Unknown
- 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
Grumman G164
- Aircraft type
- Grumman G164
- 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
- N48594
- Operator
- Riceland Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 44 years (built 1976)
- 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 137: Agricultural
- 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)
- 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
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to the pilot, the airplane departed from a local grass strip at near maximum gross weight to fertilize a nearby ryegrass field. Shortly after takeoff, the engine began “running bad," and the pilot added power, but the engine began running worse. The pilot reported the engine then stopped developing power and he made a forced landing in a muddy field about 1/4 mile from the grass strip. The airplane nosed over during the landing and came to rest inverted, sustaining substantial damage to the vertical stabilizer and rudder.
A postaccident examination of the airplane, which included the fuel system and a functional test of the magnetos, revealed no evidence of any preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation.
The atmospheric conditions at the time of the accident were conducive to the accumulation of carburetor ice while operating at cruise or glide power setting. However, the engine power setting used during the takeoff would have been significantly higher than the cruise or descent engine setting; therefore, it is unlikely that carburetor ice accumulated during the accident takeoff. The reason for the loss of engine power could not be determined based on the available evidence.
Probable cause
The loss of engine power, which resulted in a forced landing on unsuitable terrain. The reason for the loss of engine power could not be determined based on available evidence.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN21LA072
- Event ID
- 20201202102362
- Case number
- CEN21LA072
- 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: ab92a44d60812319875fa7cd341b5f061580f55c6928ef8fe1360ec35a1dbb33; retrieved 2026-09-16T13:27:09.613Z.