ATL84LA051 · Cessna 172P
Cessna 172P · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From McKellar-Sipes Regional Airport (MKL) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL84LA051
- 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 172P
- 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
- N64791
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From McKellar-Sipes Regional Airport (MKL), Jackson, TNTo 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 · 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 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
- Fuel system, selector/valve › Switched off
- Pilot in command › Emergency procedure, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Fuel tank selector position, improper
- Pilot in command › Lack of familiarity with aircraft
- Pilot in command › Remedial action, inaccurate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT DITCHED IN A RESERVOIR AT NIGHT AFTER A POWER LOSS. THE PLT WAS DESCENDING TO LAND, IN PREPARATION FOR THE LANDING THE PLT SWITCHED FUEL TANKS ON THE SELECTOR VALVE TO WHAT HE THOUGHT WAS BOTH TANKS POSITION. SHORTLY AFTER THISTHE ENGINE QUIT. THE PLT CHECKED THE FUEL SELECTOR BUT DID NOT CHANGE IT. HE CHANGED THE MAGNETO FROM BOTH TO RIGHT AND BACK TO BOTH. WHEN THE ENGINE FAILED TO RESTART HE WAS FORCED TO DITCH SHORT OF THE ARPT. THE OCCUPANTS EXITED AND SWAM TO SHORE SAFELY. WHEN THE ACFT WAS SALVAGED THE FUEL SELECTOR WAS FOUND IN THE OFF POSITION. NO FUEL WAS IN THE GASCOLATOR OR CARBURETOR. THE PLT STATED THAT THIS FUEL SELECTOR WAS DIFFERENT FROM OTHER ACFT HE HAD FLOWN AND IN THE DARKNESS HE SELECTED AN IMPROPER POSITION. THE 'OFF' POSITION IS DIRECTLY OPPOSITE THE 'BOTH' POSITION. THERE IS NO GUARD OR PROTECTIVE DEVICE TO PREVENT MOVING THE SELECTOR TO OFF INADVERTENTLY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL84LA051
- Event ID
- 20001214X45003
- Case number
- ATL84LA051
- 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: 2bedfa68dd50dff35140802d92aec15a2899c2960b2d93ccde5a8825ad4f9e57; retrieved 2026-09-23T21:04:22.165Z.