FTW93LA025 · Cessna 180
Cessna 180 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) on approach
From F82 to F82
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW93LA025
- 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 180
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 180
- 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
- N75077
- Operator
- Hollabaugh, Steven W. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From F82To F82
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern turn to base
- 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
- Throttle/power lever, cable › Disengaged
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AN INSTRUCTOR WAS PROVIDING QUALIFICATION TRAINING TO THE NEW OWNER OF THE AIRPLANE. ON HIS FIFTH STOP AND GO LANDING, THE PILOT RETARDED THE THROTTLE TO IDLE ABEAM HIS INTENDED LANDING POINT. WHILE ON BASE LEG, HE ADVANCED THE THROTTLE TO ADJUST HIS RATE OF DESCENT BUT THE ENGINE FAILED TO RESPOND AND CONTINUED TO RUN AT IDLE SPEED. CONTROLS WERE TRANSFERRED TO THE INSTRUCTOR WHO ALSO ATTEMPTED TO INCREASE POWER WITHOUT SUCCESS. EXAMINATION OF THE WRECKAGE REVEALED THAT A RETAINING CLIP ANCHORING THE THROTTLE CABLE ASSEMBLY TO THE FIREWALL WAS MISSING THUS ALLOWING THE ENTIRE HOUSING TO MOVE WHENEVER THE THROTTLE WAS ADVANCED OR RETARDED. WHILE ATTEMPTING A FORCED LANDING TO A CULTIVATED FIELD, THE LEFT MAIN GEAR WAS SEVERED ON IMPACT WITH THE FURROWS.
Probable cause
THE PARTIAL POWER LOSS DUE TO A DISCONNECTED THROTTLE CABLE. A FACTOR WAS THE LACK OF SUITABLE TERRAIN AT THE PILOT'S DISPOSAL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW93LA025
- Event ID
- 20001211X15880
- Case number
- FTW93LA025
- 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: 6b6836fa600e45128a1ee296d9a594c47b87253d5f0ebc9f1500c51c506ce9c8; retrieved 2026-09-23T02:30:57.668Z.