ATL89LA021 · Cessna 172M
Cessna 172M · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From 49J · HILTON HEAD IS., SC to Ridgeland-Claude Dean Airport (3J1)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL89LA021
- 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 172M
- 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
- N1275U
- Operator
- Mack, Oscar C. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 49J · HILTON HEAD IS., SCTo Ridgeland-Claude Dean Airport (3J1), Ridgeland, SC
- 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
- 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
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, 100-hour inspection, inadequate
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, replacement, not performed
- Throttle/power lever, cable › Cracked
- Throttle/power lever, cable › Disintegrated
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT REPORTED THAT THE AIRPLANE LOST POWER SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF. A FORCED LDG WAS SUBSEQUENTLY MADE IN A SWAMP NEAR THE ARPT. THE AIRPLANE NOSED OVER DURING ROLLOUT. POST-CRASH EXAM OF THE AIRPLANE REVEALED THAT THE THROTTLE CABLE OUTER CASING HAD BECOME BRITTLE AND DISINTEGRATED, RESULTING IN A LOSS OF THROTTLE CONTROL. CRACKS WERE VISIBLE ON REMAINING PORTIONS OF THE OUTER CASING. EXAM OF THE ACFT MAINTENANCE LOGBOOKS REVEALED THAT THE ACFT HAD UNDERGONE A 100 HR INSPECTION 2 MONTHS BEFORE THE ACCIDENT. THE ACFT OPERATING TIME SINCE THE INSPECTION WAS ABOUT 47 HRS. FURTHER EXAM OF THE LOGBOOKS REVEALED NO ENTRIES PERTAINING TO THE REMOVAL OR REPLACEMENT OF THE CABLE SINCE THE ACFT WAS NEW. TOTAL TIME ON THE ACFT WAS 3,939 HRS, BASED ON TACH TIME. 14 CFR 43, APPENDIX D REQUIRES THAT ENGINE CONTROLS BE INSPECTED FOR DEFECTS DURING 100 HR INSPECTIONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL89LA021
- Event ID
- 20001213X26989
- Case number
- ATL89LA021
- 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: 5a448d6867cd7f2c28da4ebfef92940bff10a284b0411f08d01700f1ba360351; retrieved 2026-09-23T08:29:13.778Z.