MKC85LA188 · Cessna 172RG
Cessna 172RG · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- MKC85LA188
- 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 172RG
- 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
- N4772R
- Operator
- Schwab S. Major · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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
- Total 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
- Carburetor heat control › Failure, total
- Fuel system, carburetor › Ice
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT REPORTED THAT THE ENG START & RUN-UP WERE NORMAL BEFORE HE TOOK OFF ON A NIGHT CURRENCY & PROFICIENCY FLT. AFTER 2 NORMAL TAKEOFFS & FULL STOPS, HE MADE A 3RD TAKEOFF.HE CLIMBED TO 1000 FT AGL ON A X-WIND LEG, REDUCED POWER TO 20' MANIFOLD PRESSURE & MOVED CARB HEAT CONTROL 'ON' & INITIATED A TURN. WHILE TURNING, THE ENG SUDDENLY STOPPED. UNABLE TO REACH THE RWY, THE PLT LANDED IN A SOFT, MUSHY MILO FIELD AT NIGHT. DURING THE LANDING, THE ACFT NOSED OVER. AN EXAM REVEALED THE CARB HEAT SHROUD HAD BROKEN OFF ITS MOUNTING ATTACHMENT. ALSO, THE FLEXIBLE HOSE FROM THE CARB HEAT AIR SHROUD TO THE CARB WAS ALMOST COLLAPSED. ADDITIONALLY, THE TEMP & DEW POINT WERE 78 & 73 DEGS, RESPECTFULLY. ACCORDING TO ICING PROBABILITY CHARTS, CONDITIONS WERE CONDUCIVE TO CARB ICE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MKC85LA188
- Event ID
- 20001214X37591
- Case number
- MKC85LA188
- 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 1985-08-17.
- API snapshot SHA-256: cd8e31532e1b47a8c29e3bf0be21c2a43fdbba3425e37736416d14ed3c43f9f6; retrieved 2026-09-23T16:12:40.971Z.