CHI02LA186 · Cessna 175
Cessna 175 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Lee C Fine Memorial Airport (AIZ) to General Wayne A. Downing Peoria International Airport (PIA)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI02LA186
- 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 175
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 175
- 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
- N175HL
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lee C Fine Memorial Airport (AIZ), Kaiser/Lake Oza, MOTo General Wayne A. Downing Peoria International Airport (PIA), Peoria, IL
- 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 · climb to 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
- Partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- 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, magneto › Malfunction
- Pilot in command › Operation with known deficiencies in equipment, intentional
- Pilot in command › Precautionary landing, not performed
- Pilot in command › Unsuitable terrain or takeoff/landing/taxi area, encountered
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During a forced landing into a hayfield, the aircraft was substantially damaged when it impacted a perimeter tree line. Shortly after takeoff, the airplane's performance was "somewhat sluggish and was slow to accelerate up to 100 mph", according to the pilot. He reported that approximately five miles from the airport at 400 ft agl, the engine suffered a "catastrophic loss of power." He noted that returning to the airport was not possible due to the developing descent rate and that options for a forced landing site were limited due to the terrain. A small hay field was selected, however, he was unable to stop prior to the tree line at the edge of the field. A post-accident engine examination by the FAA inspector on-scene noted that the left magneto drive gear had malfuntioned, producing an erratic spark distribution and resulting in a significant loss of engine performance. The pilot reported having engine problems the day before the accident flight. He returned to the departure airport and consulted a mechanic. A loose spark plug lead was secured and a non-firing spark plug was replaced. The mechanic's statement noted that the airplane still was not developing rated static RPM's and was not within tolerances on the magneto checks. He determined that the left magneto needed to be replaced or repaired. The pilot's statement reported that the engine performance was within specifications, and that the mechanic indicated replacement of the left magneto was optional. No logbook entry was made for the work done. In addition, the accident flight was conducted with a total of five occupants on-board: two adults and three children. This exceeded the number of approved seats/seat belts installed.
Probable cause
The pilot's decision to conduct the flight with a known deficiency in the aircraft, a failure by the pilot to execute a precautionary landing due to "sluggish" performance during takeoff, the loss of engine power due to the malfunction of the left magneto, and the lack of suitable terrain for a forced landing. Contributing factors were the low ambient light due to the time of day (night), and the tree line at the edge of the field.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI02LA186
- Event ID
- 20020712X01112
- Case number
- CHI02LA186
- 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, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2002-07-09.
- API snapshot SHA-256: ea5cde2e98ba4c87c560c5a3785a9cba277dd6103afa2bbc922c1bf7b8166e39; retrieved 2026-09-22T10:44:58.876Z.