FTW95LA045 · Cessna 182P
Cessna 182P · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Muskogee-Davis Regional Airport (MKO)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW95LA045
- 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 182P
- 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
- N5931J
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Muskogee-Davis Regional Airport (MKO), Muskogee, 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 (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Fuel system › Contamination, water
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING TAKEOFF INITIAL CLIMB FROM RUNWAY 35, APPROXIMATELY 150 TO 200 FEET, THE ENGINE LOST POWER. A FORCED LANDING WAS MADE ON THE FIELD WEST OF THE RUNWAY. THE PILOT STATED THAT 'THE MAIN GEAR FIRST CONTACTED THE GROUND 150 FEET FROM THE WESTERN TREE LINE. BRAKING ON THE WET GRASS WAS INEFFECTIVE AND IN A MATTER OF SECONDS THE PLANE IMPACTED THE TREE LINE.' THE AIRPLANE HAD AN ANNUAL INSPECTION COMPLETED ON NOVEMBER 15, 1994, DURING WHICH BOTH FUEL CAPS AND CAP ADAPTERS HAD BEEN REPLACED. WHILE THIS MAINTENANCE WAS BEING ACCOMPLISHED, THE AIRPLANE WAS PARKED OUTSIDE OF THE HANGAR WHEN ACTUAL WORK WAS NOT BEING PERFORMED, WITH THE FUEL CAPS AND CAP ADAPTERS NOT INSTALLED. DURING PREFLIGHT OF THE AIRPLANE FOR THE FIRST FLIGHT SINCE THE ANNUAL INSPECTION, THE PILOT FOUND WATER IN FOUR FUEL SAMPLES TAKEN FROM THE FUEL STRAINER. ON THE FIFTH, SIXTH, AND SEVENTH FUEL SAMPLE TAKEN THERE WAS NO LONGER ANY EVIDENCE OF WATER. DURING THE EXAMINATION OF THE AIRPLANE AND ENGINE BY THE FAA INSPECTOR, APPROXIMATELY 4 OUNCES OF WATER WAS DRAINED FROM THE CARBURETOR BOWL AND GASCOLATOR. THE ENGINE WAS DISPLACED AND THE LEFT WING WAS DAMAGED.
Probable cause
THE TOTAL LOSS OF ENGINE POWER DUE TO CONTAMINATED FUEL. FACTORS WERE THE IMPROPER MAINTENANCE PROCEDURES RESULTING IN FUEL CONTAMINATION, THE PILOT'S INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT INSPECTION, AND THE LACK OF SUITABLE TERRAIN AVAILABLE FOR THE FORCED LANDING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW95LA045
- Event ID
- 20001206X02598
- Case number
- FTW95LA045
- 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: 7a662e61a4f48c32ea346325996920f4ff2eadc006d761a5d1312b3be1ec405a; retrieved 2026-09-21T22:26:20.831Z.