DFW05LA085 · Cessna 182G
Cessna 182G · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Austin Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) to Fort Worth Spinks Airport (FWS)
Event
- NTSB case
- DFW05LA085
- 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 182G
- 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
- N2315R
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Austin Bergstrom International Airport (AUS), Austin, TXTo Fort Worth Spinks Airport (FWS), Fort Worth, TX
- 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 · VFR pattern final
- 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 (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Fuel system, carburetor › Ice
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The 315-hour pilot reported that after a non-eventful flight, he was performing a straight in approach to the airport when the "engine quit." During the forced landing, the airplane impacted trees and came to rest nose low. The pilot added that he suspected that carburetor ice could have blocked the carburetor resulting in a loss of engine power. Examination of the airplane revealed no mechanical anomalies with the aircraft or engine. The engine was successfully run for approximately 10 minutes at various power settings during an examination. Approximately 45 minutes after the time of the accident, the weather observation at the airport reported temperature 4 degrees Celsius and dew point 1 degree Celsius. According to information on a Carburetor Icing Probability Chart at the operating temperature/dew point, the airplane was within the "Moderate Icing - Cruise Power setting or serious icing - glide power" range.
Probable cause
The loss of engine power due to carburetor ice. Contributing factors were the weather conditions conducive for carburetor icing, lack of suitable terrain for a forced landing, and the prevailing dark night conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DFW05LA085
- Event ID
- 20050318X00334
- Case number
- DFW05LA085
- 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 2005-03-10.
- API snapshot SHA-256: a12f5796ec44449b7b1d06a211d90bedb71cdb7b261a7a2a9c7f338488aa0218; retrieved 2026-09-22T06:12:45.454Z.