CHI97FA188 · Cessna 172N
Cessna 172N · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) on approach
From Grand Haven Memorial Airpark (3GM) to Canton-Plymouth-Mettetal Airport (1D2)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI97FA188
- 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
- N7031Q
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Grand Haven Memorial Airpark (3GM), Grand Haven, MITo Canton-Plymouth-Mettetal Airport (1D2)
- 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
- Approach · VFR go-around
- 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
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to the pilot, he was established on final approach for a landing on runway 36 without the flaps lowered, when he realized that he was too high, and he made a decision to go around. The engine did not respond to throttle movement. The pilot knew of an open field north of the runway, but he thought it was not long enough to stop the aircraft so he executed a steep left turn to land on a nearby road that was perpendicular to the runway. During the turn, the left wing contacted the ground. Winds were reported as 180 degrees at 7 knots at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, ten miles to the southeast. Inspection of the carburetor disclosed that the throttle arm was installed out of position such that when the throttle was pulled fully closed the arm was pointing straight back at the cable. In this position, when the throttle was advanced in the cockpit, the cable and housing would bind and could allow the throttle arm on the carburetor to move upward instead of down and forward through the normal arch.
Probable cause
A loss of engine power due to fuel starvation from a binding throttle/power lever cable. Also causal was the improper maintenance, installation of the throttle arm. Contributing to the accident were the dark night and unsuitable terrain for the forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI97FA188
- Event ID
- 20001208X08069
- Case number
- CHI97FA188
- 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 1997-06-26.
- API snapshot SHA-256: d6e0f9225101debb09aaae576f2cace9bbd6ce21a0f7e14986d416613be51ed8; retrieved 2026-09-21T12:00:56.525Z.