SEA02FA171 · Cessna 175B
Cessna 175B · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From Arlington Municipal Airport (AWO) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA02FA171
- 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
- 1 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- 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 175B
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 175
- 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
- N8195T
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Arlington Municipal Airport (AWO), Arlington, WATo not recorded
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Partial 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
- Stall
- 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
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not maintained
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The passengers reported that as the aircraft was climbing out shortly after takeoff, at an altitude of about 200 to 300 feet, the engine lost power. The pilot was heard to say, "oh no, this isn't good." The pilot made a right turn, a maneuver the passenger thought was to return back to the runway. Witnesses reported hearing the engine "popping," or "missing" shortly after takeoff. The aircraft was observed to make a sharp right turn, and that the aircraft then appeared to stall out of the right turn and impacted the ground in a steep right bank and nose down attitude on the west side of the runway. During the post-accident inspection of the airframe and engine, no evidence was found to indicate a mechanical failure or malfunction. The Medical Examiner noted in the pilot's autopsy report that the pilot was wedged in the aircraft for an extended period of time following the accident. The cause of death was indicated to be arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Disseminated prostate cancer and positional asphyxia were contributory factors. Toxicology results identified a prescription narcotic painkiller used for the control of moderate to severe pain; and an over-the-counter antihistamine used for the treatment of allergy symptoms and itching. Both medications can impair motor and cognitive skills. The pilot had been under treatment for pain associated with his cancer at the time of the accident.
Probable cause
A partial loss of engine power for undetermined reasons during the initial climb, followed by the pilot's failure to maintain airspeed while maneuvering. Impairing drugs found in the pilot's system at the time of the accident were a factor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA02FA171
- Event ID
- 20020930X05248
- Case number
- SEA02FA171
- 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, coordinates. 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: 6d98e5ee99259893205321f6c92ad13c15691f28da234ab08221cb671a93a152; retrieved 2026-09-20T19:52:26.640Z.