ATL95LA061 · Cessna 177B
Cessna 177B · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From McDonald, TN (no airport) to Barwick Lafayette Airport (9A5)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL95LA061
- 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 177B
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 177
- 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
- N35138
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From McDonald, TN (no airport)To Barwick Lafayette Airport (9A5), LaFayette, GA
- 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
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Lubricating system, oil line › Separation
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, overhaul, major, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
ABOUT FOUR MONTHS BEFORE THE ACCIDENT, THE ENGINE WAS REMOVED FROM THE AIRPLANE, AND OVERHAULED BY A LOCAL MECHANIC. THE ENGINE WAS INSTALLED THE DAY BEFORE THE ACCIDENT. DURING THE ENGINE INSTALLATION THE MECHANIC FAILED TO INSTALL NEW PARTS AS DIRECTED BY A MANDATORY SERVICE BULLETIN. AFTER A BRIEF PERIOD OF GROUND OPERATION, THE PILOT DEPARTED FOR A TEST FLIGHT. APPROXIMATELY FIVE MINUTES INTO THE FLIGHT THE ENGINE LOST OIL PRESSURE, AND SUBSEQUENTLY RESULTED IN A COMPLETE LOSS OF ENGINE POWER. THE PILOT ESTABLISHED AN EMERGENCY DESCENT FOR A FORCED LANDING AT COLLEGEDALE AIRPORT. THE AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH RISING TERRAIN 50 FEET SHORT OF RUNWAY 03. A FILM OF ENGINE OIL WAS DISCOVERED OVER THE AIRCRAFT SKIN AFT OF THE ENGINE COMPARTMENT. WRECKAGE EXAMINATION ALSO DISCLOSED THAT THE OIL COOLER RETURN LINE SEPARATED AT THE METAL FITTING. ACCORDING TO THE INSTALLATION MECHANIC, THE OWNER DECIDED NOT TO INSTALL NEW HOSES AS PRESCRIBED BY A MANDATORY SERVICE BULLETIN.
Probable cause
THE MECHANIC'S FAILURE TO FOLLOW APPROVED ENGINE OVERHAUL PROCEDURES WHICH RESULTED IN THE SEPARATION OF THE OIL RETURN LINE, AND THE COMPLETE LOSS OF ENGINE POWER.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL95LA061
- Event ID
- 20001207X03066
- Case number
- ATL95LA061
- 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: 12f0c93eeb605680f75feb8685a7ff924a228f047f31a91b95b9d1b793313ca2; retrieved 2026-09-21T13:25:09.285Z.