FTW92LA225 · Cessna 172I
Cessna 172I · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From Rooke Field (RFG) to Gladewater Municipal Airport (07F)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW92LA225
- 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 172I
- 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
- N46084
- Operator
- Stratton, Laurence E. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Rooke Field (RFG), Refugio, TXTo Gladewater Municipal Airport (07F), Gladewater, TX
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Airframe, component or system 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, other › Blocked(total)
- Pilot in command › Operation with known deficiencies in equipment, performed
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Victoria, TX, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
ENGINE OIL PRESSURE DROPPED TO ZERO AND SMOKE WAS OBSERVED BY A WITNESS COMING FROM THE ENGINE. DURING THE EMERGENCY LANDING, OIL COVERED THE WINDSHIELD. ON FINAL APPROACH THE LEFT WING STRUCK THE TERRAIN. EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE REVEALED OIL LEAKING FROM THE CRANKCASE SEAL AND THE BREATHER TUBE WAS COMPLETELY PLUGGED WITH DEBRIS. THE ENGINE HAD RECENTLY EXPERIENCE AN ENGINE COMPARTMENT FIRE. A MAINTENANCE PERSON REPORTED THAT HIS SURVEY OF THE DAMAGE FOLLOWING THE FIRE HAD INCLUDED RUBBER COMPONENTS AND HOSES. THERE WAS NO RECORD THAT THE BREATHER HOSE HAD BEEN REPLACED.
Probable cause
BLOCKED ENGINE ASSEMBLY BREATHER TUBE AND THE PILOT'S CONTINUED OPERATION WITH KNOWN MAINTENANCE DISCREPANCIES. FACTORS WERE OIL ON WINDSHEILD AND REDUCED VISIBILITY DUE TO OIL ON THE WINDSCREEN..
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW92LA225
- Event ID
- 20001211X15697
- Case number
- FTW92LA225
- 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: 15e9030a0d8ab6cc3cffcae49dfe43c8a84e9a18cffee427c0dcf0259cf6107e; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:07:34.629Z.