WPR25LA037 · Cessna 172I
First Take Aviation Cessna 172I · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) during takeoff
From Van Nuys Airport (VNY) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR25LA037
- 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
- Ongoing
- 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
Cessna 172I
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- 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
- N46028
- Operator
- First Take Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Van Nuys Airport (VNY), Van Nuys, CATo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 56 years (built 1968)
- 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
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
On November 14, 2024, about 0704 Pacific standard time, a Cessna 172, N46028, was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident near Van Nuys, California. The pilot and passenger did not sustain injuries. The airplane was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 personal flight. According to the pilot, his preflight inspection and engine runup were normal, with minimal drop in RPM during the magneto check, carburetor heat application, and idle power check. After asking the tower controller for a left crosswind departure from runway 16R, the controller cleared him for takeoff. The pilot recalled that the takeoff roll, rotation and the initial climb were normal, and about 1,400 ft AGL, he completed the cruise checklist. Shortly after, the engine began to sputter and lost partial power. He contacted the tower controller, declared an emergency, pitched for best glide airspeed and attempted to return to the airport. The pilot turned on carburetor heat, verified the fuel selector was in the ‘both’ position, and performed a magneto check. Despite his attempts, he was unable to restore engine power and realized that he would not be able to make it to the airport. The pilot initiated a forced landing to an open area about 2 NM northeast of the departure end of runway 16R. During the landing roll on an uneven dirt surface, the airplane struck vegetation and nosed over. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the right wing lift strut, vertical stabilizer and rudder. The airplane has been retained for further examination.
Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR25LA037
- Event ID
- 20241114195491
- Case number
- WPR25LA037
- 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. 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: 5b6564232ed5330e57cdae5499225c82c991159b0dab2d3317673beeb58c504d; retrieved 2026-09-16T19:28:28.414Z.