SEA97FA076 · Cessna 172P
Brentco Aerial Patrol Cessna 172P · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Worland Municipal Airport (WRL) to Worland Municipal Airport (WRL)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA97FA076
- 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
- 1 · 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
- N97527
- Operator
- Brentco Aerial Patrol
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Possible conflict
- From Worland Municipal Airport (WRL), Worland, WYTo Worland Municipal Airport (WRL), WY
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Before flight, both wing fuel tanks were 'topped off' with 50 gallons of usable fuel. At about 0950 MST, the pilot departed Worland, Wyoming, en route to Cody, Wyoming, to commence the second half of an aerial pipeline patrol route. After an estimated 20 minutes of flight, the aircraft crashed in an area of uneven, sage covered, terrain. The flaps were found extended 8 degrees, the ignition had been switched to 'LEFT,' and there was evidence that the pilot had slowed the aircraft before it impacted uneven terrain. No evidence was found to indicate that the engine was developing power when impact occurred; aft bending of the propeller was noted with minimal abrasion and chordwise scratching. Extensive hydraulic effect was noted on both main fuel tanks, as well as on one of the brass floats within the carburetor float chamber. An engine teardown revealed no preimpact mechanical malfunction, and no anomaly was found with the aircraft's fuel, air, or ignition systems. Postcrash testing of the aircraft's auxiliary fuel system revealed no mechanical malfunction. Temperature and due point at Worland were 54 and 32 degrees; according to icing probability charts, these conditions were conducive for carburetor ice; however, carburetor icing was not verified.
Probable cause
loss of engine power for undetermined reason(s). 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 SEA97FA076
- Event ID
- 20001208X07626
- Case number
- SEA97FA076
- 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: d558cc8779eead9cd3f6c74b7e39f910628ee7e8fed364899e4e458ae9f67b4a; retrieved 2026-09-20T23:00:56.108Z.