BFO92LA121 · Cessna 172H
Cessna 172H · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Tanner Hiller Airport (8B5)
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO92LA121
- 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 172H
- 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
- N2458L
- Operator
- Fedoryk Ronald
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Tanner Hiller Airport (8B5), Barre, MA
- 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 (non-mechanical)
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Fuel contamination
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Contamination
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of New Braintree, MA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE DAY BEFORE THE ACCIDENT THE AIRPLANE LOST POWER INFLIGHT DUE TO FUEL EXHAUSTION AND IT WAS FORCE LANDED IN A FIELD. THE NEXT DAY, A DIFFERENT PILOT REFUELED THE AIRPLANE WITH SIX GALLONS OF FUEL IN EACH TANK. THE PILOT STATED HE CHECKED THE FUEL AT THE THREE DRAIN LOCATIONS. HE TOWED THE AIRPLANE UP A HILL, AND ATTEMPTED TO TAKEOFF. SHORTLY AFTER LIFT OFF, THE ENGINE LOST POWER, AND THE PILOT DID A FORCE LANDING. THE LANDING WAS ON SOFT TERRAIN AND THE NOSE GEAR COLLAPSED, CAUSING THE AIRPLANE TO NOSE DOWN. THE ON SCENE INVESTIGATION DISCLOSED THE FUEL IN THE CARBURETOR WAS CONTAMINATED WITH WATER. THE EXAMINATION ALSO DISCLOSED THE FUEL STRAINER WAS INOPERATIVE.
Probable cause
WATER CONTAMINATED FUEL WHICH RESULTED IN THE LOSS OF ENGINE POWER AND THE PILOT'S INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT INSPECTION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO92LA121
- Event ID
- 20001211X15611
- Case number
- BFO92LA121
- 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: c1442af7b2e12c5191423a00cb5c97d8e10a458b3f1124b64c8c91910b372007; retrieved 2026-09-23T02:41:50.718Z.