FTW04FA057 · Cessna 182RG
Cessna 182RG · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From South Arkansas Regional Airport at Goodwin Field (ELD) to Frederick W. Smith International Airport (MEM)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW04FA057
- 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 182RG
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 182
- 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
- N9318R
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From South Arkansas Regional Airport at Goodwin Field (ELD), El Dorado, ARTo Frederick W. Smith International Airport (MEM), Memphis, TN
- 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 · 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
- Total loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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
- Lubricating system, oil gasket › Failure, partial
- Lubricating system, oil gasket › Leak
- Maintenance, compliance with ad › Not complied with
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The 1,643.4-hour pilot reported that during cruise flight on a dark night, he saw "sparks under the cowling in front, and lost cylinders one, two, and three, according to the engine monitoring unit installed in the airplane." The pilot attempted to return to the airport, but the engine lost power, and he initiated a forced landing to a field with the flaps and gear retracted. Examination of the airplane revealed visible signs of oil streaks were observed throughout the entire length of the bottom of the fuselage. Flight control continuity was established throughout the airplane at the accident site. Examination of the engine revealed that the oil filter converter plate gasket was extruded in multiple locations. An Emergency Airworthiness Directive (AD) had previously been issued requiring the replacement of the oil filter converter plate gasket, but no entries were found in the airplane maintenance log books pertaining to its compliance.
Probable cause
The loss of engine power as a result of loss of engine oil due to the failure of the oil filter converter plate gasket and the noncompliance to an airworthiness directive. Contributing factors were the lack of suitable terrain for the forced landing and the dark night lighting conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW04FA057
- Event ID
- 20040109X00047
- Case number
- FTW04FA057
- 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: local date, investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2004-01-06.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 78a71a48566a33a207f50bebae25a784b6f388224071736b65f279109b6a5c97; retrieved 2026-09-20T18:38:29.000Z.