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CHI90DEE10

1990-09-30 · KANKAKEE, Illinois, United States · Fatal · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport IKK

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

A LOSS OF ENGINE POWER DUE TO ACTIVATION OF CARBURETOR CHOKE AND AN INADVERTENT STALL DURING THE FORCED LANDING.

Factual narrative

A HOMEBUILT AIRPLANE ON TAKEOFF CLIMBOUT WAS OBSERVED WITH MAIN GEAR RETRACTED AND NOSE GEAR EXTENDED. WITNESSES RECOUNT THE ENGINE SPUTTERING, FOLLOWED BY A STALL AND A UNCONTROLLED DESCENT TO GROUND. THE CARBURETOR CHOKE PLATE WAS FOUND CLOSED. THE PILOT HAD INSTALLED A POSITIVE DOWNLOCK ON THE NOSEGEAR TO PREVENT RETRACTION UNLESS A PULL-TO-RELEASE HANDLE IN THE COCKPIT WERE USED. THE HANDLE TO ENABLE NOSEGEAR RETRACTION RESEMBLED THE CHOKE HANDLE. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1990_CHI90DEE10.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Related research

Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (stall). All research papers