FTW94LA289 · Cessna 182L
Cessna 182L · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Majors Airport (GVT) to University of Oklahoma Westheimer Airport (OUN)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW94LA289
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Cessna 182L
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 182
- 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
- N3413R
- Operator
- Soloman W. Ward · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Majors Airport (GVT), Greenville, TXTo University of Oklahoma Westheimer Airport (OUN), Norman, 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Wire, transmission
- 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, cylinder › Separation
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRPLANE WAS VFR-ON-TOP FOR APPROXIMATELY 10 MINUTES WHEN THE ENGINE STARTED TO PRODUCE A 'SEVERE VIBRATION' AND PARTIAL POWER WAS LOST. THE PILOT DECLARED AN EMERGENCY AND WAS PROVIDED WEATHER CONDITIONS AND A HEADING TO THE INDUSTRIAL AIR PARK (ADM), ARDMORE, TEXAS, BY FLIGHT SERVICE. THE PILOT THEN CONTACTED FORT WORTH CENTER AND MADE AN IFR DESCENT THROUGH THE CLOUDS. ONCE THE AIRPLANE WAS CLEAR OF THE CLOUDS AT ABOUT 400 FEET AGL, IT WAS UNABLE TO MAINTAIN ALTITUDE. DURING THE CONTINUED DESCENT THE AIRPLANE STRUCK ELECTRICAL WIRES AND MADE A 'CRASH LANDING' INTO A SMALL MOWED PASTURE. 'THE AIRPLANE ROLLED APPROXIMATELY 300 FEET BEFORE ENTERING A VAST DEPRESSION, PASSED THROUGH A PERSIMMON THICKET, COMING TO REST INVERTED.' AN EXAMINATION OF THE AIRPLANE REVEALED THE LEFT WING SPAR AND LEFT HORIZONTAL STABILIZER WERE DAMAGED, AND A CYLINDER HEAD HAD SEPARATED FROM THE BARREL.
Probable cause
THE PARTIAL LOSS OF POWER DUE TO A CYLINDER HEAD SEPARATION. FACTORS WERE THE LACK OF SUITABLE TERRAIN FOR THE FORCED LANDING AND THE LOW CEILING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW94LA289
- Event ID
- 20001206X02244
- Case number
- FTW94LA289
- 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: 89a8f1979a81591db54015fe0a337f334707341ba81cc26ec98e020e1bb9bd5f; retrieved 2026-09-21T22:30:07.026Z.