BFO86FA044 · Cessna 177B
Cessna 177B · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) while maneuvering
From MD24 · Columbia, MD to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO86FA044
- 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
- 1 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 1
- 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 177B
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 177
- 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
- N34953
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From MD24 · Columbia, MDTo 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
- Partial 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 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
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Fuel tank selector position, improper
- Pilot in command › Operation with known deficiencies in equipment, performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
ACCORDING TO THE PLT, THE ENG BGN RUNNING ROUGH DRG FLT, THEN CLRD & RAN SMOOTHLY AGAIN. HE RPRTD HE ELECTED TO ABORT THE FLT & MADE A TURN, THEN SVRL MIN LATER, THE ENG LOST PWR. DRG AN EMERG LNDG IN A PARKING LOT, THE L MAIN GEAR HIT ANAUTO & FATALLY INJURED THE DRIVER. BFR COMING TO REST ON AN EMBANKMENT, THE ACFT HIT 2 OTR AUTOS & A GUY WIRE. WITNESSESRPRTD THE ACFT WAS CIRCLING THE AREA BFR THE ENG LOST PWR. A FRIEND OF THE PLT WAS LIVING APRX 2 BLKS FM THE ACDNT SITE.NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE/MALFUNCTION WAS FND. DRG A POST-ACDNT CHECK, THE ENG OPERATED NORMALLY. AN INV REVEALED CONDS WERE CONDUCIVE TO CARBURETOR (CARB) ICING. THE PLT MADE NO MENTION OF SPECIFICALLY USING THE CARB HEAT DRG THE EMERG. ALSO, THE INV REVEALED THE PLACARD FOR THE FUEL SELECTOR (SEL) WAS DESIGNED TO RESTRICT MVMNT OF THE SEL TO THE L & RGT PSNS (NO 'OFF' PSN), BUT THE PLACARD WAS FND OUTSIDE THE ACFT WITH NO DMG. SEL WAS FND IN A PSN THAT WLD HAVE SHUT OFF FUEL TO THE ENG. THE PLT RPRTD HE SHUT OFF THE FUEL WHEN HE WAS COMMITTED TO LND. FLT TIME SINCE ANNUAL INSPN: 4.4 HRS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO86FA044
- Event ID
- 20001213X34723
- Case number
- BFO86FA044
- 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: c02c1f8f2d4fb2b4077bddf9a65766b55234cde642461264e3f02ca836614a2c; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:24:28.820Z.