LAX92LA387 · Cessna 172RG
Cessna 172RG · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From Scottsdale Airport (SDL) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92LA387
- 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 172RG
- 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
- N519PU
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Scottsdale Airport (SDL), Scottsdale, AZTo 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
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Casa Grande, AZ, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PURPOSE OF THE INSTRUCTIONAL FLIGHT WAS TO PRACTICE NIGHT TAKEOFFS AND LANDINGS WITH TWO BELGIAN STUDENTS. ON THE TAKEOFF PORTION OF THE SIXTH TOUCH AND GO, THE ENGINE LOST POWER WITH WHAT THE INSTRUCTOR DESCRIBED AS A SMOOTH REDUCTION OVER A ONE TO TWO SECOND TIME PERIOD. THE CFI TOOK CONTROL OF THE AIRCRAFT AND ABORTED THE TAKEOFF CLIMB. THE AIRCRAFT LANDED ON THE DEPARTURE END OF THE RUNWAY AND COLLIDED WITH A FENCE AND A LOCALIZER ANTENNA. THE CFI STATED THAT CARBURETOR HEAT WAS USED IN ACCORDANCE WITH COMPANY POLICY AT EACH POWER REDUCTION FOR LANDING. THE AIRCRAFT WAS EXAMINED BY AN FAA AIRWORTHINESS INSPECTOR. HE REPORTED THAT FUEL WAS FOUND IN THE TANKS AND LINES TO THE ENGINE. THE ENGINE WAS STARTED AND RUN IN THE AIRFRAME AT A LOW POWER SETTING WITH NO DISCREPANCIES NOTED. ADDITIONAL TESTS OF THE IGNITION, INTAKE, EXHAUST AND FUEL SYSTEMS REVEALED NO ABNORMALITIES.
Probable cause
THE LOSS OF ENGINE POWER FOR UNDETERMINED REASONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92LA387
- Event ID
- 20001211X15724
- Case number
- LAX92LA387
- 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 1992-09-16.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 19881626e0c01e78279b00cf88b0b99f2840ffe4afee7a5c2f5a8848fed0ba3a; retrieved 2026-09-23T02:37:53.001Z.