ATL90LA186 · Cessna 172N
Cessna 172N · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Wilkes County Airport (IKB) to Raleigh Regional Airport at Person County (TDF)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL90LA186
- 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 172N
- 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
- N1904V
- Operator
- Martely, James · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Wilkes County Airport (IKB), Wilkesboro, NCTo Raleigh Regional Airport at Person County (TDF), Roxboro, NC
- 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
- Total 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
- Lubricating system › Failure, total
- Lubricating system, oil pressure pump › Worn
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE CRUISING AT 3500 FEET, THE PILOT EXPERIENCED A PARTIAL LOSS OF ENGINE POWER. ATTEMPTS TO RESTORE FULL POWER FAILED. HE RADIOED APPROACH CONTROL AND ADVISED THE CONTROLLER OF HIS PROBLEM. HE ALSO REQUESTED RADAR VECTORS TO THE NEAREST AIRPORT FOR AN EMERGENCY LANDING. MOMENTS LATER THE ENGINE QUIT. THE PILOT SELECTED AN EMERGENCY LANDING AREA AND ESTABLISHED AN APPROACH TO A LARGE PASTURE. THE RIGHT MAIN LANDING GEAR BROKE OFF AT TOUCHDOWN IN THE ROUGH/UNEVEN PASTURE. EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE REVEALED A FAILED ENGINE DRIVEN OIL PUMP. THE PUMP HAD A TOTAL OF 3620 HOURS AND 1682 HOURS SINCE LAST OVERHAULED. LYCOMING ISSUED A SERVICE BULLETIN WHICH INSTRUCTED OWNERS TO REPLACE THE SINTERED-IRON IMPELLERS AT 2000 HOURS OF ENGINE SERVICE. AN FAA AD WAS ALSO ISSUED WHICH ALLOWED AN OWNER TO OPERATE UP TO 4000 HOURS BEFORE REPLACING THE IMPELLERS. THE PROPULSION BRANCH STATED THAT A REVISED AD WOULD BE ISSUED TO CORRECT THE LOOPHOLES WHICH CAUSED THIS ACCIDENT.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE OF THE ENGINE DRIVEN OIL PUMP WHICH RESULTED IN OIL STARVATION TO THE ENGINE. FACTORS WERE: THE FAA'S FAILURE TO PROVIDE SUFFICIENT STANDARDS FOR AIRWORTHINESS DIRECTIVE COMPLIANCE, AND THE ROUGH TERRAIN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL90LA186
- Event ID
- 20001212X24196
- Case number
- ATL90LA186
- 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: 95f2376721c8b08ec5e8544d77a2c2f631a9afff36d3ab292197e097491037fc; retrieved 2026-09-23T05:16:15.806Z.