FTW93LA111 · Cessna 182
Cessna 182 · Accident: loss of engine power on approach
From No airport to No airport
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW93LA111
- 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 182
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 182
- 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
- N5520B
- Operator
- Paradise Skydivers
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From No airportTo No airport
- 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 pattern final
- 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
THE AIRPLANE WAS BEING USED TO HAUL SKYDIVERS. ACCORDING TO THE PILOT, AFTER ABOUT THE THIRD OR FOURTH FLIGHT, THERE WAS A PARTIAL LOSS OF POWER, DUE TO A FUEL TANK VENT THAT HAD BEEN BLOCKED BY A MUD DAUBER NEST. THE PILOT NOTED THAT WHEN A FUEL CAP WAS REMOVED, HE HEARD A 'HISS' AS DIFFERENTIAL AIR PRESSURE WAS RELIEVED. MAINTENANCE WAS PERFORMED TO CLEAR THE VENT, THEN THE PILOT CONTINUED HAULING SKYDIVERS. AFTER SKYDIVERS EGRESSED AT 10,500 FEET DURING THE NINETH FLIGHT, THE PILOT ENTERED A SPIRALLING DESCENT TO RETURN TO THE AIRPORT. HE REPORTED THAT DURING AN APPROACH TO LAND ON THE RUNWAY, HE ATTEMPTED TO ADD POWER TO ARREST HIS DESCENT, BUT THE ENGINE DID NOT RESPOND. THE PILOT CHANGED FUEL TANKS AND ATTEMPTED TO RESTART THE ENGINE, BUT TO NO AVAIL. HE MANAGED TO FLY OVER A POND, BUT THE AIRPLANE TOUCHED DOWN SHORT OF THE THRESHOLD. THE PILOT STEERED THE AIRPLANE TO THE LEFT TO AVOID A FENCE; HOWEVER, WHILE MANEUVERING BETWEEN THE FENCE AND A HANGAR, THE AIRPLANE'S LEFT WINGTIP HIT THE HANGAR. THE AIRPLANE THEN PIVOTED INTO THE HANGAR AND WAS FURTHER DAMAGED. AFTER IMPACT, THE PILOT NOTED THAT THE LEFT FUEL TANK HAD RUPTURED AND 'FUEL WAS RUNNING' ONTO HIS NECK AND LEFT SIDE. THE TEMPERATURE AND DEW POINT WERE REPORTED TO BE 64 AND 37 DEGREES, RESPECTIVELY; ACCORDING TO ICING PROBABILITY CHARTS, CONDITIONS WERE NOT CONDUCIVE FOR CARBURETOR ICING. NO REASON WAS FOUND FOR THE LOSS OF ENGINE POWER.
Probable cause
LOSS OF ENGINE POWER FOR UNDETERMINED REASON(S).
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW93LA111
- Event ID
- 20001211X11988
- Case number
- FTW93LA111
- 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: 9a71d12c71353c5cbc60b9649110b2a6015ad57527c868f20a52b7b43f987ade; retrieved 2026-09-23T02:13:57.888Z.