FTW97LA116 · Cessna 172P
Oklahoma State University Cessna 172P · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From 95F to Stillwater Regional Airport (SWO)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW97LA116
- 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 172P
- 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
- N65753
- Operator
- Oklahoma State University
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 95FTo Stillwater Regional Airport (SWO), Stillwater, 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
- Partial 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
- Ignition system, spark plug › Separation
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot, who is also an A&P mechanic, installed and torqued a new helicoil and spark plug. A satisfactory engine run was completed. During takeoff climb, at 300 feet AGL, 'the engine popped and lost power.' The pilot executed a 180-degree turn, and 'landed fast downwind.' During the landing roll, the aircraft overran the end of the runway and 'encountered a rut and flipped over' damaging both wings. An examination of the airplane revealed that the newly installed spark plug was hanging by its ignition wire.
Probable cause
The pilot/mechanic's improper installation of the spark plug, resulting in its separation from the engine. A factor was the unsuitable terrain available in the runway's overrun area.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW97LA116
- Event ID
- 20001208X07530
- Case number
- FTW97LA116
- 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: eb4eac40bcd56da9aaa3946d847d7bdfb4b75370a7e7cef712fafebaf6a7254d; retrieved 2026-09-22T20:14:30.416Z.