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ATL89LA102 · Cessna 172G

11 Mar 1989 · Coolidge, GA, United States

Flewellen Aviation Cessna 172G · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route

From X31 · Crystal River, FL to Southwest Georgia Regional Airport (ABY)

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Event

NTSB case
ATL89LA102
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 172G

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
N1365F
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From X31 · Crystal River, FLTo Southwest Georgia Regional Airport (ABY), Albany, GA
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 (non-mechanical)
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
Fuel contamination; Fuel starvation
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

  • Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, inspection, inadequate
  • Fluid, fuel › Contamination
  • Fluid, fuel › Starvation
  • Pilot in command › Operation with known deficiencies in equipment, performed

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

THE ENGINE LOST PWR DURING A FERRY FLT & A FORCED LDG WAS MADE IN A SOFT FIELD, WHERE THE AIRPLANE NOSED OVER. A POST-CRASH INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THE CARBURETOR FUEL-INLET FILTER SCREEN WAS MOSTLY BLOCKED WITH A LINT-LIKE MATERIAL. A MICROSCOPIC EXAM OF THE MATERIAL REVEALED THAT IT APPEARED TO BE CLOTH FIBERS. THE SOURCE OF THE MATERIAL WAS NOT DETERMINED. FURTHER INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THE ENGINE HAD EXPERIENCED REPEATED, INTERMITTENT PWR LOSSES OVER THE PREVIOUS WEEK IN SPITE OF REPEATED EFFORTS BY COMPANY MECHANICS TO LOCATE THE SOURCE OF THE PROBLEM. ACCORDING TO THE MECHANICS, CONTAMINATION WAS FOUND IN THE FUEL SYSTEM DURING THOSE EFFORTS; THE FILTERS WERE CLEANED AND THE FUEL SYSTEM WAS FLUSHED. THE INTERMITTENT POWER LOSSES OCCURRED AGAIN. EARLIER ON THIS FLT, THE ENGINE BEGAN TO SURGE & A PRECAUTIONARY LDG WAS MADE. THE MECHANIC ACCOMPANYING THE PLT REPORTEDLY FOUND NO PROBLEMS AND THE FLT WAS CONTINUED. THE ACCIDENT OCCURRED ABOUT 1 HR LATER.

Probable cause

FUEL CONTAMINATION OF AN UNKNOWN ORIGIN, FAILURE OF COMPANY MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL TO LOCATE AND REMOVE ALL CONTAMINATION, CONTINUED OPERATION OF THE AIRCRAFT BY THE PILOT AFTER THE CAUSE OF A KNOWN ENGINE PROBLEM WAS NOT DETERMINED, AND SUBSEQUENT FUEL STARVATION. THE LIGHT CONDITIONS AT DUSK AND THE SOFT TERRAIN IN THE EMERGENCY LANDING AREA WERE CONTRIBUTING FACTORS.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record ATL89LA102
Event ID
20001213X27835
Case number
ATL89LA102
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: 314aceaee5ed751c834ef820738d7ca77f9b7e5cd97d2f46d313a139739fc101; retrieved 2026-09-23T07:49:19.224Z.