FTW94FA295 · Cessna 175
Cessna 175 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From 2DT to 2DT · OK
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW94FA295
- 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
- 2 · 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 175
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 175
- 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
- N7554M
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 2DTTo 2DT · OK
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Total loss of engine power (mechanical 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
- Engine assembly, bearing › Seized
- Engine assembly, bearing › Unapproved part
- Unknown › Maintenance, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WITNESSES REPORTED THAT DURING THE TAKEOFF INITIAL CLIMB, ENGINE SOUNDS CEASED AND THE PROPELLER STOPPED IN A VERTICAL POSITION. THE AIRPLANE TOUCHED DOWN ON A GRASSY AREA BEYOND THE DEPARTURE END OF THE RUNWAY; AFTER TRAVERSING ROUGH AND UNEVEN TERRAIN, IT ENCOUNTERED A DIRT BANK AND BECAME AIRBORNE. THE AIRPLANE THEN DESCENDED INTO A 25' DEEP RAVINE. AN EXAMINATION REVEALED THE ENGINE WAS BINDING DURING ROTATION AND THE FRONT REDUCTION GEAR CASE WAS REMOVED. THE PROPELLER SHAFT THRUST BEARINGS FIT LOOSELY ABOUT THE JOURNAL, EXHIBITED SCRATCHES, AND WERE NOT THE CORRECT BEARINGS. BOTH THE PROPELLER DRIVER GEAR FRONT BEARING AND REAR BEARING WERE SOLID BRASS BEARINGS. THE MANUFACTURER PRINT SPECIFICATIONS FOR THESE BEARINGS LISTED A STEEL BACKED SPLIT BEARING. THE FRONT BEARING WAS SEIZED TO THE PROPELLER DRIVE GEAR. THE CRANKCASE AND THE FORWARD GEAR CASE EXHIBITED GALLING AND METAL DEBRIS, WHICH WAS IDENTIFIED AS ALUMINUM FROM THE MAIN GEAR CASE. THE ENGINE MAIN BEARINGS AND ROD BEARINGS EXHIBITED SCRATCHES.
Probable cause
IMPROPER MAINTENANCE OF THE ENGINE BY UNKNOWN PERSON(S), THE INSTALLATION OF UNAPPROVED PARTS, AND SUBSEQUENT BEARING SEIZURE. THE LACK OF SUITABLE TERRAIN IN THE FORCED LANDING AREA WAS A RELATED FACTOR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW94FA295
- Event ID
- 20001206X02237
- Case number
- FTW94FA295
- 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: 1c0d22b5be35b43f91a540baacd427839e0f19ba295861befcb982773b0edcc3; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:01:01.582Z.