ATL83FA215 · Cessna 172N
Smyrna Aviation Cessna 172N · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Smyrna Airport (MQY) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL83FA215
- 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 172N
- 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
- N6429F
- Operator
- Smyrna Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Smyrna Airport (MQY), SmyrnaTo 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
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT STATED THAT APRX 45 MIN AFTER TAKEOFF, HE SMELLED AN ODOR LIKE SOMETHING BURNING,THEN NOTED A LOSS OF POWER. HE STATED THAT THE ENG DID NOT QUIT, BUT HAD LOST POWER TO ABOUT THE 1000 RPM RANGE. ALSO, HE STATED THAT THE OIL PRESSURE DROPPED TO ABOUT 10 PSI. ADDITIONALLY, HE REPORTED THAT HE 'JOCKEYED' THE THROTTLE & IMMEDIATELY APPLIED CARBURETOR HEAT, BUT NEITHER OF THESE HAD ANY EFFECT. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE ACFT ENCOUNTERED A DITCH DURING A FORCED LANDING & NOSED OVER. A TEARDOWN OF THE ENG REVEALED THAT THE LIFTERS FOR THE #3 & #4 INTAKE VALVES WERE CHIPPED, SPALLED & WORN. ALSO, THE RESPECTIVE CAM LOBES WERE ROUNDED & WORN. THE ENG WAS REASSEMBLE WITH THE ORIGINAL PARTS & OPERATED NORMALLY. THE TEMP & DEW POINT WERE 76 & 64 DEG, RESPECTIVELY. ACCORDING TO ICING PROBABILITY CURVES, SERIOUS ICING COULD OCCUR AT GLIDE POWER & VISIBLE ICING COULD OCCUR AT RATED POWER. THE OIL PUMP, OIL FILTER & OIL SENSORS (TEMP & PRESSURE) CHECKED NORMAL. NO MECHANICAL REASON WAS FOUND FOR THE ENG TO LOSE POWER.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL83FA215
- Event ID
- 20001214X43191
- Case number
- ATL83FA215
- 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: cac8d33097273eeb8abdca905904219143ed74d7211e2258c712dd103aaaf145; retrieved 2026-09-21T17:55:54.725Z.