FTW85LA053 · Cessna 182H
Lambert Contracting Cessna 182H · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From Basile, LA to Phoenix Airport (LA30)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW85LA053
- 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 182H
- 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
- N1857X
- Operator
- Lambert Contracting
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Basile, LATo Phoenix Airport (LA30), New Roads, LA
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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 contamination
- 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 › Contamination
- Pilot in command › Maintenance, annual inspection, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT EXPERIENCED A NOSE GEAR COLLAPSE DURING A FORCED LANDING FOLLOWING A LOSS OF POWER SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF. PLT STATED THE POWER LOSS OCCURRED AT AN ALT OF 400 FT AGL. THE FORCED LANDING WAS MADE IN A SOFT PLOWED FIELD. POST ACCIDENT EXAM OF THE ACFT DISCLOSED SEVERAL FORE & AFT DIAGONAL WRINKLES IN THE RUBBER BLADDER TYPE FUEL TANKS. THE FUEL SCREEN ASS'Y WAS APRX 2/3 FULL OF A MILKY WHITE SUBSTANCE AND THE CARBURETOR BOWL WAS APRX 1/2 FULL OF A 'WHITE OR CLEAR' SUBSTANCE. THE ACFT WAS BEING RETURNED TO THE OWNER BY THE A&P IA AFTER AN ANNUAL INSPECTION
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW85LA053
- Event ID
- 20001214X41586
- Case number
- FTW85LA053
- 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: 9a00027df628b804503168f5077c2e40a21b3bca845c6af1347bd621847c405d; retrieved 2026-09-22T02:02:37.386Z.