NYC08CA208 · Cessna 177RG
Cessna 177RG · Accident: powerplant system/component malfunction/failure during takeoff
From Bessemer Airport (EKY) to Bessemer Airport (EKY)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC08CA208
- 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
- N45133
- Operator
- James Johnson
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Bessemer Airport (EKY), Bessemer, ALTo Bessemer Airport (EKY), Bessemer, AL
- 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
- Defining eventThe 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
- Powerplant system/component malfunction/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
- Aircraft › Aircraft power plant
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to one of the pilots of the Cessna 177RG, during the preflight inspection, he observed approximately 35 gallons of fuel onboard. The other pilot sumped the fuel tanks and no water was present. After engine start, runup was "normal," and the pilots completed the pre-takeoff checklists with no anomalies noted. After takeoff, the pilot at the controls retracted the landing gear and "immediately" observed a "very noticeable" drop in rpm and airspeed. With insufficient runway remaining, he made a slight turn to avoid obstacles at the end of the runway, lowered the landing gear, extended the flaps, and reduced power. The airplane impacted terrain, bounced back into the air, and impacted trees. The airplane came to rest nose-down at the base of a tree. The pilots exited the airplane, and because of a strong odor of fuel, turned the fuel selector to the "off" position, and turned off the master switch. Neither the pilots nor the on-scene Federal Aviation Administration inspector reported any mechanical anomalies on scene. The inspector also confirmed cylinder compression and spark from the dual magnetos. The airplane was subsequently moved to a salvage yard, where an engine run was performed under Safety Board oversight. The engine started after 5 to 6 turns, and ran for about 5 minutes. During magneto checks, the left magneto of the dual magneto appeared to be operating abnormally, resulting in increased engine shaking as the rpm was increased. The engine ran normally on the right magneto.
Probable cause
Failure of the left magneto for undetermined reasons resulting in a partial loss of engine power during takeoff.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC08CA208
- Event ID
- 20081003X17821
- Case number
- NYC08CA208
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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. 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: 236a78e19556d59b0d088bb5bb8e9c636f2e8d1cd4c0ccff11e4c0f3b1b8c9a4; retrieved 2026-09-15T10:18:21.737Z.