NYC04LA211 · Cessna 172M
Cessna 172M · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during takeoff
From Medina Municipal Airport (1G5) to 1G5
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC04LA211
- 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 172M
- 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
- N172WW
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Medina Municipal Airport (1G5), Medina, OHTo 1G5
- 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
- Takeoff · roll/run
- 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
- Engine assembly, cylinder › Low compression
- Maintenance › Inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During the takeoff roll, as the pilot rotated at 60 knots, he felt the airplane was "slow to lift," and aborted the takeoff. He reduced the power to idle and applied the brakes; however, the airplane traveled off the end of the runway, impacted a fence, and nosed over in a ditch. Examination of the Lycoming engine revealed low compression in the number 3 cylinder, due to a fractured cylinder ring. The last 100-hour inspection was performed approximately 3 weeks prior to the accident, and the airplane had flown 1 hour since then. The entry for the inspection revealed a compression check of the number 3 cylinder resulted in a reading of 55/80 psi. According to 14 CFR Part 43 Appendix D, "Each person shall inspect components of the engine and nacelle as follows...Internal engine - for cylinder compression...If there is a weak cylinder compression, [inspect] for improper internal condition and improper internal tolerances." Lycoming Service Instruction No. 1191A, stated in part, "Pressure readings for all cylinders should be nearly equal...a difference of 10 to 15 psi indicates an investigation should be made...if the pressure reading for cylinders is below 60 psi...removal and overhaul of the cylinders should be considered."
Probable cause
The partial loss of engine power due to inadequate maintenance and by failure to comply with service instruction for low engine compression.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC04LA211
- Event ID
- 20040927X01497
- Case number
- NYC04LA211
- 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: 82c7eac5c4799fded1a2c11296be8d5ef44bbec369afd2910be89586c4101e96; retrieved 2026-09-22T06:44:22.355Z.