ATL82IA198 · Cessna 177RG
Cessna 177RG · Incident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Wilmington International Airport (ILM) to Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL82IA198
- 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
- Incident
- 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
- Instrument 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
- N33226
- Operator
- Yunaska, Robert L. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Wilmington International Airport (ILM), Wilmington, NCTo Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), Atlanta, GA
- 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 exhaustion
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
- Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRCRAFT EXPERIENCED POWER FAILURE WHILE IN CRUISE FLIGHT EN ROUTE FROM WILMINGTON, NC TO ATLANTA GA. FOLLOWING THE POWER LOSS, THE PILOT LANDED GEAR UP IN AN OPEN FIELD NEAR SPARTA, GA. INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THE AIRCRAFT HAD LAST BEEN REFUELED ON 7-2-82 WITH 46.3 GALLONS OF 100LL AVIATION GASOLINE. SINCE THAT TIME, THE AIRCRAFT HAD BEEN FLOWN A TOTAL OF 4 HOURS AND 43 MINUTES. ON SCENE INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THERE WAS NO FUEL IN THE RIGHT TANK AND 6.8 GALLONS OF AMBER COLORED FUEL IN THE LEFT TANK. ANALYSIS OF THE RECOVERED FUEL INDICATED THAT IT WAS REGULAR LEADED GASOLINE. WHILE THE FAA INSPECTORS WERE ON SCENE, THEY WERE TOLD BY A LOCAL RESIDENT THAT SHORTLY AFTER THE MISHAP, THE PILOT PURCHASED ABOUT 7 GALLONS OF AUTOMOTIVE GASOLINE FROM HIM AND HIS SON. THE WITNESS STATED THAT THE PILOT SAID THAT HE DID NOT INTEND TO FLY THE AIRPLANE WITH IT, BUT ONLY WANTED TO "SATISFY THE MAN".
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL82IA198
- Event ID
- 20020917X02895
- Case number
- ATL82IA198
- 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: 97cad0e3d6737675aa099d3e486d84d0e115638e636d693630782cab10934f15; retrieved 2026-09-24T02:21:31.662Z.