LAX94LA026 · Cessna 177B
Cessna 177B · Accident: loss of engine power while maneuvering
From Q96 · Sacramento, CA to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX94LA026
- 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 177B
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 177
- 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
- N18174
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Q96 · Sacramento, CATo 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Engine accessories, engine starter › Output low
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE INSTRUCTOR REPORTED THAT HE PULLED THE MIXTURE TO IDLE CUT OFF TO SIMULATE AN ENGINE FAILURE FOR THE STUDENT. WHEN HE TRIED TO RESTART THE ENGINE, THE STARTER WOULD NOT TURN THE PROPELLER. A FORCED LANDING WAS MADE IN A RICE PADDY AND THE AIRPLANE NOSED OVER. THE STARTER WAS SUBSEQUENTLY TESTED AND FOUND TO DEVELOP 50% OF ITS DESIGNED CRANKING POWER. IT ALSO MADE GRINDING NOISES. INSPECTION OF THE STARTER REVEALED THAT IT HAD 24 VOLT BRUSHES INSTEAD OF THE REQUIRED 12 VOLT BRUSHES. FURTHER INSPECTION REVEALED THAT THE STARTER WAS NOT LUBRICATED, HAD A DRY BENDIX COUPLING, AND WAS CRACKED AT THE REAR BEARING HOUSING. COMPLETE REVIEW OF THE AIRPLANE'S MAINTENANCE RECORDS REVEALED NO HISTORICAL INFORMATION ON THE STARTER REGARDING DATE OF MANUFACTURE, OVERHAUL, OR INSTALLATION ON THE ENGINE.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE OF THE STARTER TO TURN THE ENGINE OVER DUE TO INADEQUATE MAINTENANCE AND INSPECTION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX94LA026
- Event ID
- 20001211X13601
- Case number
- LAX94LA026
- 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 1993-10-28.
- API snapshot SHA-256: b975cbb3fa09897e0ecf72a83f5e0908dbfdfe602409ff988b1e53733d7dd5f7; retrieved 2026-09-23T01:30:34.814Z.