CHI95LA230 · Cessna 172F
Cessna 172F · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Coshocton Regional Medical Center Heliport (52OH) to Perry County Municipal Airport (TEL)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI95LA230
- 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 172F
- 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
- N8599U
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Coshocton Regional Medical Center Heliport (52OH), Coshocton, OHTo Perry County Municipal Airport (TEL), Tell City, IN
- 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)
- 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, valve, intake › Seized
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT RATED PASSENGER REPORTED THAT THE ENGINE BEGAN TO 'POP' AND THE ENGINE SPEED DROPPED TO 1,400 RPM. THE PILOT SWITCHED FUEL TANKS AND APPLIED CARBURETOR HEAT, BUT THE ENGINE DID NOT RECOVER. THE AIRPLANE WAS OVER HILLY/FOREST TERRAIN WITH ONLY A SMALL WHEAT FIELD. DURING AN ATTEMPTED FORCED LANDING. THE PILOT MADE A 50 DEGREE TURN TO ALIGN THE AIRPLANE WITH THE FIELD. THE AIRPLANE IMPACTED THE TERRAIN AND SUSTAINED SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGE TO THE FUSELAGE, WINGS, AND EMPENNAGE. A COMPRESSION CHECK REVEALED COMPRESSIONS OF 50, 55, 10, 66, 62, AND 58 POUNDS PER SQUARE INCH IN CYLINDERS ONE THROUGH SIX RESPECTIVELY. DURING THE CHECK OF THE NUMBER THREE CYLINDER, AIR COULD BE HEARD FLOWING INTO THE INTAKE MANIFOLD. EXAMINATION OF THE NUMBER THREE INTAKE VALVE REVEALED 'CONSIDERABLE' CARBON UNDER THE INTAKE VALVE SEAT AND SCRATCHES IN THE VALVE STEM.
Probable cause
the number three intake valve became stuck (seized), which resulted in a loss of engine power. The lack of suitable terrain for a forced landing was a related factor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI95LA230
- Event ID
- 20001207X03903
- Case number
- CHI95LA230
- 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: f009ab63290545c0303c07e408bf24e4e1d44df5ddb882333e80e36a0ea53149; retrieved 2026-09-21T22:08:55.667Z.