ERA09LA272 · Cessna 172 M
LH Underwood Aerial Patrol Cessna 172 M · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) while maneuvering
From Spartanburg Downtown Memorial Airport (SPA) to Thomaston Upson County Airport (OPN)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA09LA272
- 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 172 M
- 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
- N9884Q
- Operator
- LH Underwood Aerial Patrol
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Spartanburg Downtown Memorial Airport (SPA), Spartanburg, SCTo Thomaston Upson County Airport (OPN), Thomaston, GA
- 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
- Maneuvering · low-altitude flying
- 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
- Loss of engine power (partial)
- 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 from the NTSB case API, not marked as estimated; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot stated that while flying pipeline patrol about 500 feet above ground level, the engine began to run “rough” and lose engine rpm with a corresponding loss of power. The pilot adjusted the carburetor heat, throttle, and mixture controls to the “full” positions, as well as adjusting the fuel selector to all positions, with no change in engine performance. He navigated toward the nearest airport and noted that the engine rpm had decayed to 1900 as the airplane descended. The pilot determined that he could not reach the airport and made an emergency landing in trees. Postaccident, the airplane engine started and ran but did not develop full power. Disassembly of the engine revealed excessive wear and a broken exhaust valve. The engine manufacturer recommended overhaul at 2,000 engine hours, or 12 calendar years, whichever occurred first. Examination of aircraft logbooks revealed that the engine had accrued 2,403 hours and nearly 13 years since its last overhaul.
Probable cause
The partial loss of engine power due to a broken exhaust valve. Contributing to the accident was the operator's exceedance of the engine manufacturer's recommended time before overhaul.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA09LA272
- Event ID
- 20090428X03450
- Case number
- ERA09LA272
- 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, 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: f0f1ce56e238d390bb6e6267efa15b0f66181e71bade615cfefdf3f38eb1b80e; retrieved 2026-09-15T10:59:40.484Z.