FTW97LA180 · Cessna 172N
Cessna 172N · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From St Johns Industrial Air Park (SJN) to El Paso International Airport (ELP)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW97LA180
- 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 172N
- 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
- N733WJ
- Operator
- James D. Hossler · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From St Johns Industrial Air Park (SJN), ST. JOHNS, AZTo El Paso International Airport (ELP), El Paso, TX
- 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
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, improper
- Throttle/power lever › Loose part/bolt/nut/clamp/etc
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Las Cruces, NM, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that while in cruise flight the engine RPM decreased to 2,100. He pulled the throttle out and the RPM decreased to 1,900 RPM. He then applied full throttle and the RPM only increased to 2,000. A forced landing was performed to a young pecan orchard. Examination of the aircraft's fuel system revealed that the right fuel tank had approximately 20 gallons of fuel, and the left fuel tank was empty. Further examination of the aircraft's throttle assembly revealed that the throttle arm castellated nut was loose, and the cotter pin was missing allowing the throttle arm to move without actuating the throttle shaft. A review of the maintenance records revealed the throttle shaft was replaced 6.2 hours earlier during an annual inspection. The person who performed the throttle shaft replacement reported that the airplane left his facility with the cotter pin installed.
Probable cause
The improper installation of the throttle arm castellated nut, which resulted in a partial loss of power. A factor was the lack of suitable terrain for the forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW97LA180
- Event ID
- 20001208X07908
- Case number
- FTW97LA180
- 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 1997-05-07.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 885b026a09a348c8e33772c80bfced3485c5ce0189ca07df42f51483846c9fb0; retrieved 2026-09-22T19:46:05.591Z.