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Atlas / NTSB / NYC91FA246

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event NYC91FA246

1991-09-21 WEST CHICAGO, Illinois, United States Airport · DPA Fatal 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N65729

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

CESSNA 172S

Year of manufacture

2005

Engine

LYCOMING IO-360-L2A (180 hp)

Seats / Engines

4 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

20050224

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A8A97B

Registrant of record

NEVRDUL LLC

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

THE PILOT'S IMPROPER IN-FLIGHT DECISION TO RETURN TO THE AIRPORT FOLLOWING A LOSS OF ENGINE POWER AT A LOW ALTITUDE. THE PILOT FAILED TO MAINTAIN AIRSPEED WHICH RESULTED IN AN INADVERTENT STALL AT AN ALTITUDE INSUFFICIENT FOR RECOVERY. FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WERE THE LOSS OF ENGINE POWER DUE TO THE FAILURE OF THE CARBURETOR VENTURI, THE OPERATOR'S DISREGARD OF THE PRECISION AIRMOTIVE SERVICE BULLETIN.

Factual narrative

THE PILOT RENTED N65729 FROM AN FBO FOR A LOCAL FLIGHT. WITNESSES STATED THAT SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF FROM RUNWAY 15, THEY SAW THE AIRPLANE TRAILING 'LIGHT GRAY SMOKE' AND HEARD THE ENGINE LOSE POWER. THE WITNESSES SAW THE AIRPLANE IN A STEEP LEFT BANK TURN AT AN ALTITUDE OF BETWEEN 300 AND 500 FEET AGL. THE AIRPLANE THEN DESCENDED IN A NOSE LOW ALTITUDE INTO THE PARKING LOT OF AN INDUSTRIAL PLANT. POST ACCIDENT EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE REVEALED THE TWO PIECE CARBURETOR PRIMARY VENTURI HAD SEPARATED FROM ITS NORMAL MOUNTED POSITION AND WAS INGESTED INTO THE NO. 2 CYLINDER. SEVERAL SERVICE BULLETINS HAD BEEN ISSUED BY THE MANUFACTURER ADDRESSING THE INSTALLATION OF A NEW ONE PIECE VENTURI. PRECISION AIRMOTIVE ISSUED SERVICE BULLETIN MSA 2 ON OCT. 15 90. REVIEW OF THE ENGINE LOGBOOK FOR N65729 REVEALED SERVICE BULLETIN MSA 2 HAD NOT BEEN ACCOMPLISHED. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1991_NYC91FA246.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). 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 ↗