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CHI91DEX01

1990-11-22 · INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana, United States · Minor · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport IND

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

INADEQUATE MAINTENANCE AND INSPECTION OF THE AIRPLANE RESULTING IN AN ENGINE POWER LOSS DUE TO WATER AND FUEL CONTAMINATION. A CONTRIBUTING FACTOR WAS THE DARK NIGHT.

Factual narrative

THE PILOT MADE A PRECAUTIONARY LANDING AT INDIANAPOLIS DUE TO A ROUGH RUNNING ENGINE. A MECHANIC ATTEMPTED TO FIND THE PROBLEM, CLEANED THE PLUGS AND ADDED HYDRAULIC FLUID TO THE AIRPLANE. THE ENGINE ROUGHNESS COULD NOT BE DUPLICATED DURING FURTHER RUNUPS. SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF THE ENGINE AGAIN RAN ROUGH AND THE AIRPLANE WOULD NOT SUSTAIN ALTITUDE. THE PILOT RETURNED TO INDIANAPOLIS AND THE AIRPLANE LANDED SHORT OF THE RUNWAY AFTER CONTACTING POWERLINES, TREES AND A FENCE. POST ACCIDENT INSPECTION OF THE ENGINE REVEALED THE FUEL METERING VALVE SCREEN WAS ALMOST COMPLETELY BLOCKED BY FOREIGN MATERIAL, AND THE FUEL DISTRIBUTOR VALVE WAS ALMOST FULL OF WATER. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1990_CHI91DEX01.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

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