MIA04FA076 · Cessna 177RG
Cessna 177RG · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) on approach
From Pompano Beach Airpark (PMP) to Peter O Knight Airport (TPF)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA04FA076
- 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
- 2 · 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 177RG
- 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
- N1910Q
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Pompano Beach Airpark (PMP), Pompano Beach, FLTo Peter O Knight Airport (TPF), Tampa, FL
- 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
- Approach
- 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
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, overhaul, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
An attendant at the Peter O. Knight Airport, Tampa, Florida, stated that she heard a radio communications transmission during which the voice stated that his airplane engine was experiencing roughness and backfiring. Shortly after the initial call, the attendant said she heard the pilot say "we're not going to make it." The accident airplane subsequently ditched in Tampa Bay, about a third of a mile short of the airport, in about 16 feet of water. Postaccident examination of the airplane revealed no anomalies with the airframe and flight controls or engine. During a detailed examination of the Teledyne Continental Motors dual-drive magneto, the magneto's cam was shown to have lost all lubrication, and the points were seized. Airplane records showed that the last known magneto overhaul was conducted by Electrosystems, Inc in October 1997. The records also showed that the magneto had been reinstalled on July 21, 2003, when the engine was overhauled, but a magneto overhaul had not been performed. Teledyne Continental Motors SB643B Service Bulletin pertinent to subject magneto, specifies that the magneto be overhauled when the engine is overhauled. In addition, Textron Lycoming's Mandatory Service Bulletin specifies mandatory parts replacement at overhaul and during repair and normal maintenance. Examination of the Bendix Fuel Flow Divider which was installed on the accident airplane revealed that the subject fuel flow divider did not have the latest diaphragm installation, as specified in Bendix Fuel Systems Service Bulletin RS-86, dated December 23, 1983.
Probable cause
Improper maintenance by other maintenance personnel, and the reinstallation of an unserviced magneto during an engine overhaul, which resulted in the magneto malfunctioning, a loss of engine power, and the airplane being ditched into the water.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA04FA076
- Event ID
- 20040426X00509
- Case number
- MIA04FA076
- 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: 0b184363bd4946b85f2504e6b3f38a41a005b4cc3789ff264b4ecfd3f590c9a9; retrieved 2026-09-20T18:30:00.417Z.