WPR21LA172 · Michael J Robbins SEAREY
Michael J Robbins SEAREY · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) during takeoff
From an unrecorded airport to Seattle Paine Field International Airport (PAE)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR21LA172
- 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
Michael J Robbins SEAREY
- Aircraft type
- Michael J Robbins SEAREY
- 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
- N888MJ
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Seattle Paine Field International Airport (PAE), Everett, WA
- Aircraft age
- About 5 years (built 2016)
- 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)
- 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
- Personnel issues › Task performance
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 of an experimental amphibian airplane reported that, during takeoff, about 200 ft above ground level, the engine experienced a reduction of power. The engine was running, but without sufficient power to maintain level flight. He elected to make an off-airport landing that resulted in an impact with vegetation and substantial damage to both wings. The pilot further reported that, the right throttle cable had pulled loose from the carburetor arm on takeoff and the spring pulled the throttle arm to the idle position, which resulted in a partial loss of engine power. According to the pilot, he had reinstalled the carburetor opposite to how it came from the manufacturer. According to the manufacturer, the carburetor is installed with the throttle lever spring positioned in such a manner that if the throttle cable breaks, the throttle lever spring will move to the FULLY OPEN position (full power). There were no other preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
Partial loss of engine power due to the detachment of the throttle cable from the carburetor arm, as a result of the pilot’s inadequate maintenance which resulted in an off-airport landing and impact with vegetation.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR21LA172
- Event ID
- 20210422102962
- Case number
- WPR21LA172
- 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, cause areas. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2021-04-22.
- API snapshot SHA-256: f730fa365c9bdf8aa31454c22e262c6af5c4cba87337543256cfb89c761a7496; retrieved 2026-09-16T13:58:40.020Z.