FTW02LA159 · Cessna 172N
Split S Aviation Cessna 172N · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Hicks Air Field (T67) to San Antonio International Airport (SAT)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW02LA159
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
- N734KG
- Operator
- Split S Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hicks Air Field (T67), Fort Worth, TXTo San Antonio International Airport (SAT), San Antonio, 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 · 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
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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
- Ignition system, ignition switch › Incorrect
- Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, not followed
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During the dark night cross-country flight, while at a cruise altitude of 2.000 feet msl, the pilot initiated a climb to 3,000 feet. A few minutes later, the engine's rpm dropped 200-300 rpm. The 67-hour pilot increased throttle to check for an rpm response. Subsequently, the engine lost power, and a forced landing was initiated. While approaching to land, the pilot noticed trees in front of the airplanes flight path and started looking for another place to land, but couldn't see anything because it was too dark. Subsequently, the aircraft impacted tress coming to rest upright. An examination of the engine under the supervision of an FAA inspector, revealed the left magneto's internal gears did not rotate with the engine. Removal of the left magneto revealed only one of two rubber drive isolators inside the ignition harness cap. Internal inspection revealed the contact points on the left hand side of the magneto did not open on rotation. Further examination of the airplane, displayed the ignition key turned to the left magneto only. The pilot reported to the NTSB investigator-in-charge, that he did not touch any switch while exiting the aircraft.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to set the ignition key to the both magnetos position, which resulted in a loss of engine power. Contributing factors were the failure of the left magneto, the lack of suitable terrain for the forced landing, and the dark night.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW02LA159
- Event ID
- 20020528X00745
- Case number
- FTW02LA159
- 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, coordinates. 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: 1da8c6d29a053f4c52ac01900eb12059b7ed5aacfdb2fe97c8a780724f934fb7; retrieved 2026-09-22T10:55:08.472Z.