ATL94LA115 · Cessna 172
Cessna 172 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL94LA115
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Cessna 172
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N3882L
- Operator
- Mathis, Claudy J. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Maneuvering
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Airframe, component or system failure
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, improper
- Throttle/power lever, linkage › Disconnected
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE CRUISING AT 2300 FEET, THE PILOT EXPERIENCED A DROP IN ENGINE RPM. THE PILOT REPORTED THAT ENGINE RPM DROPPED FROM 2500 TO 1500; ATTEMPTS BY THE PILOT TO RESTORE FULL POWER FAILED. THE PILOT SELECTED A NEARBY FIELD FOR THE FORCED LANDING. ACCORDING TO THE PILOT, HE USED THE MAGNETO SWITCH TO CONTROL THE 1500 RPM AVAILABLE FOR THE APPROACH AND FORCED LANDING. AN EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE ASSEMBLY REVEALED THAT THE THROTTLE LINKAGE AT THE CARBURETOR WAS DISCONNECTED. ACCORDING TO THE OPERATOR, THE CARBURETOR WAS OVERHAULED AND INSTALLED ON THE ENGINE TWO FLIGHT HOURS BEFORE THIS ACCIDENT. THE THROTTLE LINKAGE IS NORMALLY SECURED TO THE CARBURETOR WITH A BOLT, A NUT,AND A SAFETY COTTER PIN; THESE ITEMS WERE NOT RECOVERED FOR EXAMINATION.
Probable cause
THE MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL'S FAILURE TO PROPERLY SECURE THE THROTTLE LINKAGE ASSEMBLY THAT RESULTED IN A REDUCTION IN ENGINE POWER.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL94LA115
- Event ID
- 20001206X01430
- Case number
- ATL94LA115
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 3a1c773436e14640fcfbc7a0319a489eb6d083ed43eb51af4ff4ce88bdef7231; retrieved 2026-09-23T01:01:43.980Z.