ATL06LA099 · Cessna 172H
Cessna 172H · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From Wilson Airport (GA03) to 2AO · Dayton, TN
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL06LA099
- 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 172H
- 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
- N8084L
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Wilson Airport (GA03), Ringgold, GATo 2AO · Dayton, 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- Fuel starvation; 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
- Pilot in command › Fuel management, improper
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot stated he and the co-owner arrived at the airport to pick up the airplane. The co-owner observed the left wing was lower than the right wing and fuel was draining out of the fuel vent. The pilot moved the fuel selector valve handle from the both position to the right main fuel tank position. The pilot opened the left main fuel cap and stated the left main fuel tank was full. The co-owner opened the right main fuel cap and estimated about six gallons of fuel was present. The pilot started the airplane, taxied to the engine run up area, completed the engine run, and departed. The pilot turned right crosswind at about 50 feet and the engine lost power, The pilot lowered the nose, attempted to move the fuel selector valve from the right tank position to the left main fuel tank position which was unsuccessful. The engine started, stopped, and the pilot made a forced landing straight ahead into the trees. Examination of the airplane revealed the left and right main fuel tank were not ruptured. No fuel was present in the left main fuel tank and 5 gallons of fuel were removed by recovery personnel from the right main fuel tank. No fuel leakage was present on the ground. The airplane was recovered to a storage facility. The left and right main fuel tanks hold 18 gallons of fuel of which 1.5 gallons of fuel are not useable in non-level flight. The left and right main fuel tanks were filled with water and there was no evidence of leakage. Shop air was applied to the fuel system and no anomalies were noted. Plumbing for an external fuel source was connected into the left and right fuel tank supply line with a flexible hose for two engine runs. The fuel selector valve was placed in the left main fuel selector position for the first engine run and then on the right main fuel selector for the second engine run. The engine was started, the throttle was advanced to 1000 rpm and stabilized for 2 minutes. The throttle was advanced to 1500 rpm and a magneto check was conducted. The throttle was advanced to 2200 rpm and stabilized for 5 minutes, the engine was returned to the idle position, and shut down on both engine runs. No anomalies were noted during either engine run.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper fuel management resulting in a total loss of engine power due to fuel starvation resulting in a forced landing, and collision with trees and the ground.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL06LA099
- Event ID
- 20060710X00906
- Case number
- ATL06LA099
- 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: f83249e4c48bbc0b9f11061ff111d1169e78f1c7eb9430a3b5c4dd97ae9185a7; retrieved 2026-09-21T08:56:10.971Z.