CHI05LA076 · Cessna 177RG
Cessna 177RG · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Rochester International Airport (RST) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI05LA076
- 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 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
- N2019Q
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Rochester International Airport (RST), Rochester, MNTo 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 · 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
- Engine assembly, connecting rod › Failure
- Fluid, oil › Starvation
- Lubricating system, oil gasket › Improper
- Manufacturer › Procedure inadequate
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, improper
- Propeller governor control › Loose part/bolt/nut/clamp/etc
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane was substantially damaged when it impacted a tree and the ground during a forced landing following a loss of engine power. Subsequent to the accident, the engine was found to have a broken connecting rod, and the oil level was below the bottom of the dipstick. According to the pilot and maintenance records, the airplane had recently undergone an annual inspection. The annual inspection included an overhaul of the propeller governor. Examination of the governor installation revealed that the mounting nuts did not have the proper stack up of washers and were not torqued to specifications. In addition, the aircraft maintenance manual for the airplane indicated the use of a single gasket between the governor and the engine accessory housing. An aircraft maintenance manual for later year models of the airplane and an engine manufacturer's Service Instruction indicated the use of 2 gaskets and a plate between the propeller governor and the engine accessory housing. The engine manufacturer’s Service Instruction stated that the 2 gaskets and plate are necessary "to eliminate the possibility of oil leakage between the propeller governor and the accessory housing."
Probable cause
The loss of engine power due to oil starvation and the subsequent failure of a connecting rod. Additional causes were the improper maintenance due to under-torqued fasteners, and inadequate airframe manufacturer maintenance procedures resulting in an improper oil gasket installation. The tree encountered during the forced landing was a factor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI05LA076
- Event ID
- 20050408X00431
- Case number
- CHI05LA076
- 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: 7d7c1aa1b32a9835b1e71c947fa82bfb9c538122ba4bdf7002b4e80723f12fd4; retrieved 2026-09-21T09:09:24.498Z.