MIA03LA143 · Cessna 172P
Delta Connection Academy Cessna 172P · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Orlando Sanford International Airport (SFB) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA03LA143
- 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 172P
- 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
- N52186
- Operator
- Delta Connection Academy
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Orlando Sanford International Airport (SFB), Orlando, FLTo 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
- En route · climb to 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
- Partial 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command(cfi) › 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
The certified flight instructor (CFI) stated that during the initial climbout from Sanford he noticed a slight, brief engine vibration however the gauges were within normal limits and continue with the flight. While performing touch-and-go landings at Orlando Country Airport, the student reported to him that the airplane was not performing/climbing normally on upwind. According to the CFI during takeoff following a touch-and-go demonstration to the student, while in ground effect, the engine "sputtered" and he was unable to establish a positive climb rate. He initiated precautionary landing with one-third of the runway remaining. He states he then applied the brakes until the airplane departed the departure end of the runway impacting a ditch. The CFI and the student pilot stated, in similar initial on-scene written statements to the Orange County Sheriff's Office, that the takeoff "did not go as planned" and that they needed to collect their thoughts before giving a statement to the FAA. A witness to the accident stated hearing the accident airplane power up and power down before the sound of brakes locking up. An examination of the engine revealed the number one cylinder's spark plugs were fouled with lead and oil. The nearest reported winds to the accident site were from 310 degrees at 5 knots at the Orlando Executive Airport, Orlando, Florida. At the time of the accident, the pilots were conducting touch-and-go landings on runway 15, published runway length of 2,675 feet in length by 120 feet in width.
Probable cause
The pilot's continue operation with known deficiencies (engine vibration) resulting in a partial loss of engine power during climb after takeoff and overrun of the runway during the aborted takeoff.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA03LA143
- Event ID
- 20030722X01171
- Case number
- MIA03LA143
- 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: ea450eeca7b80bef5168383781c01c3d88cc2a89254d2a6e5b798054c293d828; retrieved 2026-09-22T08:57:05.800Z.