CEN24LA200 · Piper PA28 140
Piper PA28 140 · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) during initial climb
From Taylor Municipal Airport (T74) to Stephenville Clark Regional Airport (SEP)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN24LA200
- 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
- 0
- 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
- N56466
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Taylor Municipal Airport (T74), Taylor, TXTo Stephenville Clark Regional Airport (SEP), Stephenville, TX
- Aircraft age
- About 51 years (built 1973)
- 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 (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
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 that during the carburetor heat check on the engine run-up, the engine sounded like it backfired and then lost rpm. A second carburetor heat check was performed, and the engine operated normally. During initial climb after takeoff there was a decrease in engine rpm. The pilot verified that the engine controls were full forward and executed a forced landing to a field. During the forced landing, the airplane struck the top of a berm, which resulted in substantial damage to the fuselage. Postaccident examination of the engine showed evidence that the engine had a rich fuel-air mixture present at the time of the accident. Following the examination, the engine was test run multiple times. During the test runs, the engine performed without hesitation or stumbling when repeated aggressive throttle movements were made. Further examination showed that the carburetor air inlet hose was not the proper part and was not made to the manufacturer’s specifications. The engine was run without any notable issues when the carburetor air inlet hose was not attached. Due to the damage to the engine mount and cowlings, it was not possible to replicate the carburetor air inlet hose installation and failure mode at the time of the accident, but the effects of reduced airflow were demonstrated and were similar to the pilot’s reported loss of rpm. Based on the available information, the carburetor air inlet hose likely partially collapsed during the initial climb which resulted in a partial loss of engine power.
Probable cause
A partial loss of engine power due to an incorrect carburetor air inlet hose, which led to a reduction in air flow to the engine.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN24LA200
- Event ID
- 20240528194330
- Case number
- CEN24LA200
- 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, coordinates, 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: a19fea9a7e1f89c37b4c7c880661bbfb444e9fd914fd65f7f4f3ef27bbb119da; retrieved 2026-09-16T18:48:41.322Z.