LAX86FA326 · Cessna 182N
Cessna 182N · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Fullerton Municipal Airport (FUL) to Long Beach International Airport (LGB)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX86FA326
- 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 182N
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 182
- 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
- N92252
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fullerton Municipal Airport (FUL), Fullerton, CATo Long Beach International Airport (LGB), Long Beach, CA
- 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
- Wire, transmission
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Engine assembly, other › Overtorque
- Engine assembly, valve, intake › Inoperative
- Other maintenance personnel › Documentation, improper
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING A LOCAL NIGHT INSTRUCTIONAL FLT THE PLTS REPORTED THAT THE ENG BEGAN TO RUN VERY ROUGH AND EVENTUALLY QUIT WHEN POWER WAS REDUCED SLIGHTLY TO BEGIN THE DESCENT FOR THE DESTINATION ARPT. THE ACFT STRUCK POWER LINES, TWO SMALL BUILDINGS AND A BRICK WALL DURING THE NIGHT FORCED LANDING IN AN INDUSTRIAL AREA. EXAMINATION OF THE ENG REVEALED THAT THE NUMBER ONE CYLINDER EXHAUST VALVE ROCKER ARM SHAFT BOSS JOURNAL HAD FAILED. TESTS OF AN IDENTICAL ENG DUPLICATING THE BOSS JOURNAL FAILURE IN A TEST CELL REPLICATED THE ENG POWER LOSS AS DESCRIBED BY THE CREW. THE CYLINDER HAD BEEN CHANGED 27 HOURS PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT. EVIDENCE INDICATED THAT THE ROCKER ARM SHAFT KEEPER BOLT HAD BEEN OVER TORQUED DURING THE OVERHAUL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX86FA326
- Event ID
- 20001213X34506
- Case number
- LAX86FA326
- 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 1986-08-20.
- API snapshot SHA-256: fb51b0fe1e8892ed1fc548d7f50cee72985d542c45599ef793c1b92113947d3f; retrieved 2026-09-21T16:52:29.605Z.