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LAX92LA328 · Cessna 172P

2 Aug 1992 · Burbank, CA, United States

Burbank Flying Club Cessna 172P · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb

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Event

NTSB case
LAX92LA328
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 172P

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
N53485
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From not recordedTo 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
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

  • Engine assembly, valve, exhaust › Binding(mechanical)
  • Engine assembly, valve, exhaust › Overtemperature
  • Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, service bulletin/letter, not performed

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

DURING THE INITIAL CLIMB AFTER TAKEOFF AT ABOUT 300 FEET AN UNUSUAL NOISE WAS HEARD BY THE PILOT AND THE PASSENGER WHO WAS RECORDING THE TAKEOFF ON A VIDEO CAMERA RECORDER. THE NOISE WAS A METALLIC TAPPING SOUND WHICH VARIED WITH ENGINE RPM. THE PILOT ATTEMPTED TO LAND ON THE REMAINING RUNWAY. THE AIRPLANE OVERRAN THE RUNWAY THRESHOLD AND COLLIDED WITH A SECURITY FENCE. A POST CRASH EXAMINATION OF THE AIRPLANE AND A TEST RUN OF THE ENGINE FAILED TO DUPLICATE OR EXPLAIN THE SOUNDS AS RECORDED ON THE TAPE. FURTHER EXAMINATION OF THE TAPE BY AN FAA APPROVED ENGINE REPAIR STATION PERSONNEL CONCLUDED THAT THE NOISE WAS A METALLIC 'TAPPET' TYPE OF A SOUND. DURING A DISASSEMBLY OF THE ENGINE A STICKING EXHAUST VALVE WAS FOUND IN NUMBER TWO CYLINDER WITH EVIDENCE OF HIGH TEMPERATURES AND OIL BURNING RESIDUE ON THE SPRINGS OF THAT VALVE. TEXTRON LYCOMING ADDRESSES THE POTENTIAL PROBLEM IN SERVICE BULLETIN NUMBER 388A, DATED APRIL 14, 1978, WHICH RECOMMENDS COMPLIANCE AT 1000 HOURS OF OPERATION. LYCOMING SERVICE LETTER L197A, DATED JANUARY 19, 1988, CONTAINS RECOMMENDATIONS TO AVOID VALVE STICKING. LYCOMING SERVICE INSTRUCTIONS 1425A, DATED JANUARY 19,1988, CONTAINS SUGGESTED MAINTENANCE PROCEDURES TO REDUCE THE POSSIBILITY OF VALVE STICKING. NO RECORD OF COMPLIANCE WAS FOUND.

Probable cause

THE BINDING AND OVER TEMPERATURE OF AN EXHAUST VALVE DUE TO THE LACK OF COMPLIANCE WITH FACTORY SERVICE INSTRUCTIONS AND BULLETINS REGARDING VALVE STICKING BY OTHER MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record LAX92LA328
Event ID
20001211X15432
Case number
LAX92LA328
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 1992-08-03.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: 288a2e4dcfae837a28a9515bce459e5c74fa25cb2ee54213e413aacf3fb600b4; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:11:13.325Z.