MKC88LA182 · Cessna 172E
Cessna 172E · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Jonesboro Municipal Airport (JBR) to Fort Smith Regional Airport (FSM)
Event
- NTSB case
- MKC88LA182
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Cessna 172E
- 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
- N3943S
- Operator
- Zarimba, Joseph · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Jonesboro Municipal Airport (JBR), Jonesboro, ARTo Fort Smith Regional Airport (FSM), Fort Smith, AR
- 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)
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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, connecting rod › Failure, total
- Fluid, oil › Exhaustion
- Ground personnel › Aircraft service, improper
- Lubricating system, oil filler cap › Disconnected
- Lubricating system, oil filler cap › Not secured
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE IN NORMAL CRUISE FLT, THE PLT DECLARED AN EMERGENCY. HE STATED THE ENG HAD FAILED & THAT HE THOUGHT IT HAD 'THROWN A ROD.' SUBSEQUENTLY, THE ACFT WAS EXTENSIVELY DAMAGED DRG AN EMERG LANDING IN A WOODED AREA. AN INVESTIGATION REVEALED THE #6 CONNECTING ROD ASSEMBLY HAD FAILED FROM LACK OF LUBRICATION. THE OIL FILLER CAP WAS NOT IN PLACE; ALTHOUGH IT WAS STILL ATTACHED TO THE CHAIN. THE PLT HAD STOPPED IN JONESBORO, ARKANSAS, WHERE THE ACFT WAS SVCD WITH FUEL & ONE QUART OF OIL. THE PLT STATED THAT AFTER THE ACFT WAS SVCD WITH OIL, HE OBSERVED THE LINE ATTENDANT REPLACE THE OIL CAP. HIS MED CERT WAS DATED 4/3/86.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MKC88LA182
- Event ID
- 20001213X26900
- Case number
- MKC88LA182
- 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 1988-10-01.
- API snapshot SHA-256: dbf12cfebb68b1693e9412f8ed7bc2c57d03a9ae623f192faabff04ac41905c0; retrieved 2026-09-22T00:23:18.785Z.