ATL03LA100 · Cessna 172N
Cessna 172N · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during an emergency descent
From Orangeburg Municipal Airport (OGB) to Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport (BHM)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL03LA100
- 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
- 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 172N
- 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
- N734AG
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Orangeburg Municipal Airport (OGB), Orangeburg, SCTo Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport (BHM), Birmingham, AL
- 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
- Emergency 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
- Total loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Miscellaneous, bolt/nut/fastener/clamp/spring › Incorrect
- Mixture control, linkage › Binding(mechanical)
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, improper
- Pilot in command › Operation with known deficiencies in equipment, continued
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to the pilot, during preflight procedures, he noticed that the mixture control was "stuck fully open". The pilot elected to make the flight despite this finding. The pilot stated that it "did not appear to effect the airworthiness" of the airplane. Approximately 20 minutes into the flight the airplane had a partial loss of engine power. The pilot declared an emergency and requested assistance from Columbia Tower. The airplane regained engine power and the pilot elected to return to the departure airport. On final approach, the airplane had a complete loss of engine power, and the pilot conducted an emergency landing in a field. After landing without incident, the pilot observed flames exiting the cowling. Efforts by the pilot to extinguish the fire using the onboard fire extinguisher were unsuccessful, and the airplane was destroyed. Examination of the carburetor showed the mixture control linkage was corroded and not moving freely. Further examination revealed an incorrect bolt had been installed for the mixture control linkage.
Probable cause
The pilot's continued operation of the airplane with known deficiencies in the equipment. Also causal was the other maintenance personnel's improper installation of the mixture control linkage bolt that resulted in binding of the mixture control linkage and the post-landing fire.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL03LA100
- Event ID
- 20030619X00912
- Case number
- ATL03LA100
- 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: e52a25cd085ac4fb0dd923bd4bfc2341bdf883e15187af2db7afe9204865fd77; retrieved 2026-09-22T09:14:38.653Z.