DEN83FTA02 · Cessna 177
Cessna 177 · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Hardin, MT to Hardin, MT
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN83FTA02
- 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 177
- 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
- N2824X
- Operator
- Douglas Freeman
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hardin, MTTo Hardin, MT
- 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 · descent
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › Fuel supply, inattentive
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRCRAFT HAD BEEN FULLY SERVICED WITH FUEL (48 GAL USABLE SUPPLY) AND HAD BEEN FLOWN 1.8 HRS PRIOR TO THIS FLIGHT. REPORTEDLY, THE PILOT HAD RELIED ON HIS FUEL LOG AND FUEL GAUGES, AND DID NOT VISUALLY CHECK THE FUEL QUANTITY DURING THE PREFLIGHT. WHILE ON A GRADUAL DESCENT TOWARD THE AIRPORT, THE ENGINE LOST POWER AND WOULD NOT RESTART. A CRASH LANDING WAS MADE IN PLOWED FIELD ABOUT 1/2 MI FROM THE AIRPORT. NO FUEL WAS FOUND IN THE FUEL TANKS AND LINES. THE AIRCRAFT HAD FLOWN .6 HRS ON THIS FLIGHT OR 2.4 HRS SINCE IT WAS REFUELED. AT 75% POWER, ABOUT 24 GAL WOULD HAVE BEEN CONSUMED. RED FUEL STAINS WERE FOUND ON THE INLET FUEL LINE AND ON THE FIRE WALL BELOW THE LINE. WITH THE COWLING ON, THE PILOT WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN ABLE TO OBSERVE THE STAINS. THE FUEL LINE (PN S1236-8-0280) WAS REMOVED AND PRESSURE CHECKED AT 7 PSI. DURING THE CHECK, A SMALL STREAM OF FUEL ABOUT 1/16 INCH IN DIAMETER WAS NOTED. ALSO, FUEL THEFTS HAD BEEN REPORTED AT THE AIRPORT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN83FTA02
- Event ID
- 20020917X04541
- Case number
- DEN83FTA02
- 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: 42f4bb3e22d63f60a9692ceeb21290074ec398a8d99214f5ece2f2a3ac3d9d84; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:04:36.454Z.