FTW84LA377 · Cessna 177B
Cessna 177B · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From F70 · Fort Worth, TX to Scholes International At Galveston Airport (GLS)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW84LA377
- 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 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
- N19953
- Operator
- John C. Bolser · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From F70 · Fort Worth, TXTo Scholes International At Galveston Airport (GLS), Galveston, TX
- 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 · descent
- 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 exhaustion
- 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
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Refueling, not performed
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Texas City, TX, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
ACCORDING TO THE PLT, DURING THE PRE-FLT INSPECTION THE FUEL TANKS WERE CHECKED BY DIPPING HIS FINGERS INTO THE TANKS TO DETERMINE HOW MUCH FUEL REMAINED. NEITHER TANK WAS FULL BUT THE PLT ESTIMATED THAT SUFFICIENT FUEL REMAINED FOR THE FLT. ABOVE THE FUEL GAGES IN THE ACFT WAS A LABEL TAPED TOTHE INST PANEL STATING THAT THE INDICATORS WERE UNRELIABLE. DESCENDING THROUGH 2,300 FT APRX 7 MILES FROM THE DEST ARPT THE ENG LOST POWER. DURING THE FORCED LANDING ROLLOUT ON A HIGHWAY THE RIGHT WING STRUCK A GUARD RAIL POST SEPARATING THE WING FROM THE ACFT. THE RATED PLT PAX REPORTED THAT WHEN THE POWER LOSS OCCURRED THE PLT SAID 'WE'RE OUT OF GAS.'
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW84LA377
- Event ID
- 20001214X40739
- Case number
- FTW84LA377
- 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 1984-09-01.
- API snapshot SHA-256: d7aa2a1cdf8cb17e26ce6b42bf1ec1375bdcc97ba7864ca934154e5134d26251; retrieved 2026-09-23T19:30:40.118Z.