SEA82FA046 · Cessna 177RG
Cessna 177RG · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From King County International Airport - Boeing Field (BFI) to Red Bluff Municipal Airport (RBL)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA82FA046
- 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 177RG
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 177
- 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
- N2114Q
- Operator
- Craig R. Caruer · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From King County International Airport - Boeing Field (BFI), Seattle, WATo Red Bluff Municipal Airport (RBL), Red Bluff, CA
- 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
- 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 contamination; 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
- Fluid, fuel › Water
- Fuel system, cap › Leak
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING FLIGHT AT 13,000 FT MSL, THE ENGINE BEGAN LOSING POWER. THE AIRCRAFT WAS VECTORED TOWARD THE PROSPECT AIRPORT NEAR TILLER, OREGON. HOWEVER, ABOUT TWO MINUTES LATER, ALL ENGINE POWER WAS LOST. DURING A FORCED LANDING, THE AIRCRAFT STRUCK A DEAD CONIFEROUS TREE BESIDE A LOGGING ROAD. THE IMPACT WITH THE TREE OCCURRED AT 117 FT AGL. GROUND IMPACT OCCURRED 162 FT FROM THE TREE IN AN UPRIGHT AND RELATIVELY FLAT ATTITUDE. THE ELEVATION OF THE CRASH SITE WAS ABOUT 3000 FT MSL. NO MECHANICAL FAILURE OF THE ENGINE WAS EVIDENT. DURING EXAMINATION OF THE FUEL SYSTEM, THE RIGHT FUEL CAP WAS SECURED TO THE FUEL CELL, BUT WAS DIFFICULT TO REMOVE AND REINSTALL DUE TO BINDING AND IMPROPER SEATING. RUST WAS NOTED AROUND THE FUEL CAP AND FUEL CELL FILLER NECK, BOTH ABOVE AND BELOW OF WHERE THE RUBBER GROMMET WAS SEATED. SEVERAL PIECES OF GRANULAR ICE WERE REMOVED FROM THE RIGHT FUEL CELL. WATER WAS FOUND IN BOTH THE FUEL FILTER BOWL AND THE FUEL FLOW DISTRIBUTOR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA82FA046
- Event ID
- 20020917X02620
- Case number
- SEA82FA046
- 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: 0b729ccb12947e9e115b942aa68a0746cd07639bab51747927b05b2018d41cfa; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:17:21.387Z.