NTSB CAROL · Event
Event WPR12LA329
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
A partial loss of engine power during takeoff due to carburetor icing. Contributing to the accident was the lack of a carburetor heat system installed on the airplane.
Factual narrative
HISTORY OF FLIGHT
On July 27, 2012, at 1830 Pacific daylight time, an Interplane Skyboy EX, N582YB, experienced a partial loss of engine power and collided with a fence during the off-field landing near Sandy River Airport (03S), Sandy, Oregon. The private pilot operated the airplane under the provisions of Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91. The pilot and single passenger were not injured, and the airplane was substantially damaged. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the local flight, and no flight plan had been filed. The pilot reported that he had been flying the airplane for about 1 hour before the accident. He landed, shut down the engine, changed passengers, and restarted the engine. The total time from shut down to start up was about 5 minutes. He said that the airplane's engine run-up and takeoff were normal. After takeoff, about 300 to 400 feet above ground level (agl), the engine began to lose power. The pilot made a hard right turn and landed in an open field. The airplane impacted a fence post with its right wing during the landing roll out.
PERSONNEL INFORMATION
The pilot, age 41, held a private pilot certificate for airplane single-engine land issued January 17, 2012, and a second-class airman medical certificate issued June 22, 2011, with the limitation that the holder shall wear corrective lenses. The pilot reported 338.1 total flight hours, and 1.2 hours in the accident airplane make and model.
AIRCRAFT INFORMATION
The two-seat, high-wing, fixed gear, experimental category airplane, serial number 06192001735, was manufactured in 2001. It was powered by a Rotax 582, 64-horsepower engine, and equipped with a Powerfin 3-bladed fixed pitch propeller. The pilot reported that the airplane had 159.6 hours total time, and the most recent annual inspection was completed on July 9, 2012. The engine was not equipped with a carburetor heat system. The engine manufacturer stated in the Rotax 582 installation manual that, "If the aircraft is to be operated in climatic conditions where carburetor icing is likely to occur, a heating system must be fitted."
METEROROLOGICAL INFORMATION
Meteorological information collected by a Remote Automated Weather Station (RAWS) located on Firewood Road, 1.7 miles south of Sandy River Airport recorded ambient temperature, dew point, and relative humidity for that location. The data recorded on July 27, at 1848, was the ambient temperature of 63 degrees F; the dew point was 55 degrees F; and the relative humidity was 76 percent. Data for August 9, at 1248, was the ambient temperature of 62 degrees F; the dew point of 56 degrees F; and relative humidity of 81 percent. The ambient conditions at the time the engine was being examined and tested by a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspector on August 9 matched closely with the ambient conditions at the time of the accident on July 27. Meteorological conditions in Vernon, British Columbia, Canada, on November 12, 2012, when the engine was test run at the manufacturer's technical representative's facility, indicated an ambient temperature of 32 degrees F; a dew point of 31 degrees F; and a relative humidity of 91 percent.
WRECKAGE & IMPACT INFORMATION
Photographs of the airplane after the accident showed damage to the leading edge of the right wing outboard of the lift strut attach point. The left landing gear main mount and nose wheel were collapsed. The windscreen exhibited a crack across the entire face of the windscreen. No damage to the engine or propeller was evident. An FAA inspector, assisted by an airframe and power plant (A&P) mechanic, examined the airplane and engine on August 9, 2012. The engine remained attached to the airframe and was test run multiple times. The FAA inspector reported that the fuel, oil injection, and engine control system was checked and appeared to operate properly. The pistons were viewed through the exhaust ports and appeared to have normal wear signatures with no sign of seizure. The engine was started and accelerated to 5,900 revolutions per minute (rpm). After approximately 1 1/2 minutes of operation the engine rpm began to degrade until a total reduction of approximately 1,000 rpms occurred, then stabilized around 5,000 rpms. After the carburetor fuel jets were replaced with ones of a smaller orifice size, as well as the replacement of spark plugs, the engine run was repeated; the results were consistent with the first engine run. Carburetor fuel pressure was observed to maintain 3 pounds per square inch after engine shut down. Under the direction of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Investigator-in-Charge (IIC), the engine was removed from the airframe, crated, and shipped to the Rotech facility, located in Vernon, British Columbia, Canada, for further examination. On November 13, 2012, the engine was examined at the Rotech facility under the supervision of the NTSB IIC. The engine was removed from the sealed crate and placed on an engine test stand. A static examination of the engine failed to reveal anomalies. Oil was present in the gear box, both carburetors were closely synchronized, the fuel filter was checked for leaks and held a 15 kilopascals (Kpa) vacuum, all spark plug gaps were 0.032 inches, and the piston heads exhibited normal combustion signatures. The engine was run on the test stand, first for 8 minutes at 3,000 rpm, then to maximum (max) power at 5,500 rpm. The test propeller was re-pitched to 12 degrees in order to produce max power rpm. The engine was run at 6,250 rpm for 2 minutes, 6,000 rpm for 5 minutes, then 4,900 rpm for 5 minutes. The engine was shut down, inspected, and restarted. It was run at idle for 1 minute, then at 6,200 rpm for 2 minutes, then 4,800 rpm for 10 minutes. An engine acceleration test followed by accelerating the engine from 3,150 rpm to 5,800 rpm; this was performed two times. It was then run at 3,150 rpm for 2 minutes, and then shut down and sat for 1 hour. The fuel transducer was removed and the engine restarted; it produced a new maximum rpm of 6,480. In summary, the engine was run for approximately 28 minutes without losing power or rpm, shut down for 1 hour, then restarted and found to maintain normal power rpm.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Carburetor Icing The carburetor icing chart indicated the possibility of serious carburetor icing at the reported atmospheric conditions. The Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge (FAA-H-8083-25A) states that first indication of carburetor ice in an airplane with a fixed pitch propeller is a decrease in engine rpm. Additionally, it states that when conditions are conductive to carburetor icing that carburetor heat should be applied immediately and should be left ON until the pilot is certain all the ice has been removed. If ice is present applying partial heat or leaving heat on for an insufficient time might aggravate the situation. The pilot had been flying the airplane for about 1 hour before the accident. He landed, shut down the engine, boarded new passengers, and restarted the engine. The total time from shut down to start up was about 5 minutes. He stated that the airplane's engine performed normally during run-up and takeoff. After takeoff, about 300 to 400 feet above ground level, the engine began to lose power. The pilot made a hard right turn and landed in an open field. The airplane impacted a fence post with its right wing during the landing roll. An engine examination revealed that the engine did not have a carburetor heat system installed. The subsequent engine test run on the airframe confirmed that a partial loss of engine power occurred after about 1.5 minutes of operation. The temperature, dew point, and relative humidity were nearly identical during the engine test run and the accident event. A carburetor icing chart indicated the possibility of serious carburetor icing at cruise power at the reported atmospheric conditions. The engine was removed from the airframe, examined, and tested at an engine tech services facility. During the engine test run the engine performed at various power levels for 28 minutes without degraded power output. The atmospheric conditions during this test were significantly different than the conditions at the time of the accident. The engine inspection concluded that there were no anomalies that would have precluded normal operation. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12
NTSB Findings
Hierarchical cause / factor breakdown from the FAA bulk avdata database. Each finding tagged C (Cause) or F (Factor).
- C Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Temp/humidity/pressure-Conducive to carburetor icing-Effect on equipment - C
- F Organizational issues-Development-Design-Equipment design-Manufacturer - F
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2012_WPR12LA329.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
Beyond the agency record
Search this event elsewhere.
Pre-filled searches into the sources where news + community discussion of aviation events lives. External sources are reported, not agency. Treat them as signal that something happened, not as fact about what happened.
Entity-clustered aviation events in the press — last 24 hr + 30-day archive.
Official agency record + docket.
Investigative docket: factual reports, photos, transcripts.
Long-running aviation incident database (Flight Safety Foundation).
Community NTSB synthesis blog — often has photos and witness reports.
Gold-standard aviation incident blog.
Aviation industry news search.
GA pilot forum — informed but rumor-prone.
GA pilot subreddit search.
Tail-number page — flight history (free tier limited).
AOPA Air Safety Institute search.
Mainstream press coverage. Recent events only.
Privacy-preserving news search.
External links open in a new tab. We don't ingest their content; we deep-link search queries.
Related research
What the literature says.
Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (icing, 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.
- arXiv 2023 · arXiv preprint
Variation of Critical Crystallization Pressure for the Formation of Square Ice in Graphene Nanocapillaries
Two-dimensional square ice in graphene nanocapillaries at room temperature is a fascinating phenomenon and has been confirmed experimentally.
- arXiv 2022 · arXiv preprint
Enhanced Prediction of Three-dimensional Finite Iced Wing Separated Flow Near Stall
Icing on three-dimensional wings causes severe flow separation near stall. Standard improved delayed detached eddy simulation (IDDES) is unable to correctly predict the separating reattaching flow due…
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Contractor Report (CR)
An Evaluation of an Analytical Simulation of an Airplane with Tailplane Icing by Comparison to Flight Data
This report presents the assessment of an analytical tool developed as part of the NASA/FAA Tailplane Icing Program. The analytical tool is a specialized simulation program called TAILSM4 which was de…
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Technical Publication (TP)
NASA/FAA Tailplane Icing Program: Flight Test Report
This report presents results from research flights that explored the characteristics of an ice-contaminated tailplane using various simulated ice shapes attached to the leading edge of the horizontal …
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Other
[Tail Plane Icing]
The Aviation Safety Program initiated by NASA in 1997 has put greater emphasis in safety related research activities. Ice-contaminated-tailplane stall (ICTS) has been identified by the NASA Lewis Icin…
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2019 · Journal article (IJAAA)
Airport Policing in Pakistan: Structure, Training, and Issue
Airports are strategically and economically important installations of any country. Airports are the gateway of any country and any incidents at these gateways may harm the very aspects of a country i…
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗