FTW96LA061 · Cessna 182Q
Aspen Flying Club Cessna 182Q · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Centennial Airport (APA) to Southeast Colorado Regional Airport (LAA)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW96LA061
- 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 182Q
- 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
- N735JN
- Operator
- Aspen Flying Club
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Centennial Airport (APA), Englewood, COTo Southeast Colorado Regional Airport (LAA), Lamar, CO
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Engine assembly, connecting rod bolt › Failure, total
- Engine assembly, cylinder › Separation
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE IN NIGHT CRUISE VFR FLIGHT, THE PILOT HEARD A LOUD NOISE AND THE ENGINE LOST POWER. THE AIRPLANE SUSTAINED SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGE DURING THE ENSUING FORCED LANDING. ENGINE DISASSEMBLY DISCLOSED THE NUMBER 2 CYLINDER HAD SEPARATED FROM THE CRANKCASE AND THE PISTON WAS FRACTURED IN TWO PIECES. THERE WAS EVIDENCE OF CYLINDER ROCKING AND FRETTING. ONE THROUGH-BOLT PENETRATED THE COWLING, FOUR STUDS WERE BENT AND TWO STUDS WERE MISSING. ONE OF THE CONNECTING ROD BOLTS WAS STRIPPED AND THE OTHER HAD FAILED IN TENSION. THE NUMBER 5 CYLINDER WAS SCORED AND THE PISTON WAS ERODED. THERE WAS EVIDENCE OF HIGH HEAT DISTRESS. THE ENGINE WAS OVERHAULED IN JANUARY 1992, AND RECEIVED A PROPELLER STRIKE INSPECTION 7 MONTHS LATER. ENGINE TOTAL TIME WAS 3,301 HOURS, AND TIME SINCE MAJOR OVERHAUL WAS 1,498 HOURS.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE ENGINE CONNECTING ROD BOLTS AND SEPARATION OF THE CYLINDER FROM THE CRANKCASE. FACTORS WERE THE LACK OF SUITABLE TERRAIN FOR THE FORCED LANDING, AND REDUCED LIGHT CONDITIONS (DARK NIGHT).
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW96LA061
- Event ID
- 20001207X04860
- Case number
- FTW96LA061
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1995-12-01.
- API snapshot SHA-256: dfae07a654e95087e58661d2482ae415637f3966be5ff9ff1b94bb61e749f737; retrieved 2026-09-21T21:59:52.848Z.