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Atlas / NTSB / CHI91LA256

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event CHI91LA256

1991-08-11 VALPARAISO, Indiana, United States Airport · VPZ Serious 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N45WB

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

CESSNA 180C

Year of manufacture

1960 · 31 years old at event

Engine

CONT MOTOR O-470 SERIES (230 hp)

Seats / Engines

4 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19600409

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A571B9

Registrant of record

DFW AERO MECHANIX INC

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

THE PILOT IN COMMAND'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN AIRSPEED. A FACTOR CONTRIBUTING WAS IMPROPER MAINTENANCE (DESIGN CHANGE) PERFORMED BY AN UNQUALIFIED PERSON (PILOT IN COMMAND).

Factual narrative

DURING INITIAL CLIMB THE AIRCRAFT SUSTAINED A TOTAL LOSS OF POWER. WHILE IN A TURN TO AN EMERGENCY LANDING AREA THE AIRCRAFT STALLED AND ENTERED A SPIN IMPACTING THE TERRAIN. SUBSEQUENT INVESTIGATION FOUND A FOREIGN SUBSTANCE BLOCKING THE MAIN METERING ORIFICE IN THE CARBURETOR WHICH HAD MIGRATED FROM A MISSING GASKET ON THE DRAIN PLUG. THE PILOT INDICATED THAT HE HAD USED A SUBSTITUTE MATERIAL FOR REPLACEMENT OF THE MISSING GASKET. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1991_CHI91LA256.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Related research

What the literature says.

Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (stall, maintenance). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.

Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗