MKC82DA022 · Cessna 172H
Cessna 172H · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Kankakee, IL to Liberty, MO
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- MKC82DA022
- 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 172H
- 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
- N5333T
- Operator
- James R. Lambert · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Possible conflict
- From Kankakee, ILTo Liberty, MO
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Emergency procedure, improper
- Pilot in command › Fuel system, improper use of
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Wentzville, MO, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
DURING A CROSS-COUNTRY FLIGHT, THE PILOT SWITCHED THE FUEL SELECTOR FROM BOTH TANKS TO THE RIGHT TANK TO BALANCE THE FUEL. AFTER THE TANKS WERE BALANCED, HE FAILED TO SWITCH THE SELECTOR BACK TO BOTH. DURING A NIGHT, FINAL APPROACH AT HIS DESTINATION, THE ENGINE LOST POWER FROM FUEL STARVATION WITH THE FUEL SELECTOR STILL POSITIONED TO THE RIGHT TANK. HE DID NOT SWITCH TO THE LEFT TANK OR BOTH TANKS TO RESTART THE ENGINE. HE WAS AWARE OF POWER LINES NEAR THE RUNWAY AND FOCUSED HIS FULL ATTENTION TO FLYING THE AIRCRAFT AND LOCATING THE POWER LINES. HE SPOTTED THE POWER LINES ON HIS FLIGHT PATH AND MANEUVERED UNDER THEM. THE AIRCRAFT WAS DAMAGED WHEN IT LANDED IN A CONSTRUCTION AREA AND CONTINUED INTO A CORN FIELD. IT CAME TO REST ABOUT 400 FT FROM THE RUNWAY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MKC82DA022
- Event ID
- 20020917X02428
- Case number
- MKC82DA022
- 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. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1982-01-29.
- API snapshot SHA-256: b237f2251049ef96d44c9dfa3147cf524e46bfb010c6b3f4da030aa42bcb4e77; retrieved 2026-09-24T03:44:57.959Z.