FTW86LA145 · Cessna 172D
Cessna 172D · Accident: loss of engine power while maneuvering
From Cordell Municipal Airport (F36) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW86LA145
- 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 172D
- 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
- N2730U
- Operator
- Kevin O 'Halloran
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Cordell Municipal Airport (F36), Cordell, OKTo not recorded
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- Wire, static
- 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
- Fuel system, carburetor › Ice
- Object › Wire, static
- Pilot in command › Carburetor heat, improper use of
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT WAS PRACTICING MANEUVERS AT 1200 FEET AGL, WHEN THE ENGINE BEGAN TO RUN ROUGH. HE APPLIED THE CARBURETOR HEAT AND HAD A LARGE POWER REDUCTION. HE THEN TURNED OFF THE CARBURETOR HEAT AND HAD A TOTAL LOSS OF POWER AT APPROXIMATELY 800 FEET AGL. THE PILOT BEGAN AN EMERGENCY DESCENT AND THE AIRCRAFT COLLIDED WITH A POWER LINE AT APPROXIMATELY 30 FEET AGL. THIS CAUSED THE NOSE OF THE AIRCRAFT TO DROP AND YAW LEFT. THE AIRCRAFT SLID ABOUT 40 TO 50 FEET ON LANDING SEVERING THE NOSE GEAR AND BENDING THE RIGHT WING. NO EVIDENCE OF ANY MECHANICAL FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION WAS FOUND. THE CARBURETOR ICING PROBABILITY CHART INDICATES SERIOUS ICING CONDITIONS EXISTED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW86LA145
- Event ID
- 20001213X34483
- Case number
- FTW86LA145
- 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: aec707946f7fb2923481d7381159f3638f5bedd750d791b8cd44a4228c88103c; retrieved 2026-09-23T14:09:33.578Z.