ATL83FLA01 · Cessna 172M
Cessna 172M · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) while maneuvering
From Quitman, GA to Thomasville, GA
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL83FLA01
- 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
- 2 · 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 172M
- 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
- N8977V
- Operator
- Helen K. Long · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Quitman, GATo Thomasville, 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
- Maneuvering
- 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; Wire, transmission
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Fuel supply, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Fuel tank selector position, improper
- Pilot in command › Proper altitude, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WITNESSES OBSERVED THE ACFT A LITTLE ABOVE THE TREE TOPS PRIOR TO COLLIDING WITH A HIGH VOLTAGE TENSION WIRE. THE TWO PASSENGERS (AGES 10 & 11) WERE SEATED IN THE RIGHT FRONT SEAT, BOTH USING THE SAME SEAT BELT. THE SURVIVING PASSENGER STATED THEY HAD REQUESTED THE PLT TO FLY AN "UP & DOWN FLIGHT PATH" WHICH THE PLT HAD PERFORMED ON PREVIOUS OCCASIONS TO THRILL THE BOYS. HE ALSO STATED THAT THE ENG SOUNDED NORMAL DURING THE ALTITUDE CHANGES BUT MIGHT HAVE SPUTTERED THE LAST TIME THEY WERE GOING UP. THE FUEL SELECTOR WAS POSITION TO THE RIGHT TANK. THE RIGHT FUEL TANK WAS NOT RUPTURED. THE RIGHT WING SEPARATED FROM THE FUSELAGE AT THE IWNG ROOT & THERE WAS NO FIRE DAMAGE OF THE WING ROOT NOTED ALTHOUGH THE RIGHT WING ROOT WAS FOUND APPROXIMATELY 8 FT FROM THE FIRE RIDDEN CABIN AREA. THERE WAS NO EVIDENCE OF FUELSPILLAGE IN THE IMMEDIATE AREA OF THE RIGHT WING. THE MECHANIC WHO LOADED THE RIGHT WING ON A TRUCK BED OBSERVED APPROXIMATELY 1 PINT OF FUEL SPILL OUT OF THE RIGHT WING ROOT. THE ACFT'S FLT PATH WAS FACING THE SUN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL83FLA01
- Event ID
- 20020917X04331
- Case number
- ATL83FLA01
- 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: 8e5c6b64f9f62d692fe3b93c1ca821768dd79fcae2d4538cda8d7beb47df83c0; retrieved 2026-09-21T07:35:07.284Z.