NYC06LA179 · Cessna 172N
Mac Dan Aviation Cessna 172N · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Essex County Airport (CDW) to Essex County Airport (CDW)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC06LA179
- 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
- 1 · 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 172N
- 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
- N4792D
- Operator
- Mac Dan Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Essex County Airport (CDW), Caldwell, NJTo Essex County Airport (CDW)
- 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
- Partial 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, 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 accident flight was the first flight after the airplane's most recent annual inspection was completed. During the flight, the pilot reported that he had no throttle control. The pilot further stated that the engine rpm was 1,400, and the airplane was losing altitude. The pilot attempted to execute a forced landing to an access road; however, the airplane struck trees and a postcrash fire ensued. Examination of the wreckage revealed that the throttle body portion of the carburetor remained attached to the engine, and the cotter pin was missing from the throttle lever locknut. The throttle lever locknut was partially backed-off its stop. In addition, the throttle lever was loose, and the serrations on the throttle shaft stop were disengaged from the serrations on the throttle lever. Review of maintenance records revealed that during the annual inspection, the throttle shaft bushings and shaft assembly were noted as worn, and were subsequently removed and replaced. The mechanic that performed the work stated that he recalled installing a throttle shaft bushing and a throttle shaft, but did not recall a cotter pin missing. Review of a Cessna service manual revealed instructions and diagrams to secure the locknut with a cotter pin. No other preimpact mechanical malfunctions were observed.
Probable cause
Improper maintenance of the throttle shaft, which resulted in a partial loss of engine power during cruise flight, and subsequent impact with trees during a forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC06LA179
- Event ID
- 20060720X00970
- Case number
- NYC06LA179
- 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: 32b0f715b1b3d8de45f2ab3e59caa3211f20abec867ed3a206d4885863168691; retrieved 2026-09-20T17:10:49.662Z.