LAX98LA214 · Cessna 172
Cessna 172 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From Flagstaff Pulliam Airport (FLG) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX98LA214
- 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 172
- 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
- N7188A
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Flagstaff Pulliam Airport (FLG)To not recorded
- 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
- 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, bearing › Failure, total
- Lubricating system › Blocked(partial)
- Lubricating system › Contamination
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Flagstaff, AZ, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
The pilot stated that the preflight and run-up were conducted with no anomalies noted. After takeoff, the airplane experienced a loss of engine power followed by a loss of altitude and collision with terrain. The airplane came to rest inverted in a sewage pond near the airport. After the power loss, the pilot made an unsuccessful attempt to restart the engine utilizing the emergency checklist. The engine was inspected and mechanical continuity of the engine was established. The crankcase was separated and it was noted that the bearings, pistons, and cylinders exhibited heat discoloration. The number 4 main bearing exhibited evidence of rubbing on the crankshaft and a section of that bearing insert was severely worn, heat distressed, and had flowed over the edge of the crankcase bearing journal. The number 6 connecting rod bearing insert exhibited an unidentified metal substance in the oil port. The remaining crankcase oil journals were found to be clear. The oil pump was disassembled and revealed a nick on one of the driven gear teeth, which corresponded to circumferential scoring on the oil pump housing. The oil filter and suction screen were clean. No further discrepancies were noted with the engine. Review of the maintenance records revealed that an annual inspection, which included an oil change, had been completed approximately 1 hour prior to the accident flight.
Probable cause
Oil system contamination with an unidentified metal substance that traveled through the oil system and blocked the number 4 main bearing and number 6 connecting rod bearing oil ports, resulting in oil starvation and failure of the engine. The source of the contamination is undetermined.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX98LA214
- Event ID
- 20001211X10367
- Case number
- LAX98LA214
- 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: 715c16d59c169e645dc56a3b09b17c59c29f6cda14157ac99e6c213f7f051e3f; retrieved 2026-09-22T17:36:35.617Z.