ERA09FA343 · Cessna 177 RG
Cessna 177 RG · Accident: loss of engine power (total) during initial climb
From Laconia Municipal Airport (LCI) to IZG · Fryberg, NH
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA09FA343
- 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 177 RG
- 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
- N52670
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Possible conflict
- From Laconia Municipal Airport (LCI), Gilford, NHTo IZG · Fryberg, NH
- 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
- 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 (total)
- 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
- Aircraft › Fluids/miscellaneous hardware
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
On the initial flight following an incomplete annual inspection, the airplane experienced a total loss of engine power and impacted a tree during the resultant forced landing. The airframe and powerplant (A&P) with an inspection authorization (IA) rated mechanic reported that he signed off the logbooks with the expectation that another mechanic would perform an engine run-up prior to flight. Federal Aviation regulations did not allow delegation of authority with regards to the inspection and that the IA must perform the inspection prior to approving the airplane for return to service. The accident pilot arrived to the maintenance facility prior to the A&P mechanic, retrieved the logbooks that were signed off, and departed. Oil was noticed on the taxiway that services the maintenance facility, in the engine run-up area, and leading to the runway. The oil cooler return line attach nipple was fractured and gouges were noted on the surface of the hose end socket caused by an inadvertent contact by a wrench slipping off of a nearby bolt or nut and striking the surface of the hose end socket. Results of toxicology testing were consistent with recent use of marijuana and amphetamine. It could not be determined whether impairment due to such use may have played a role in the accident.
Probable cause
A loss of engine power due to oil exhaustion from the fracture of the nipple for the engine oil cooler return line. Contributing to the accident was the mechanic's signoff and release of the airplane without performing the required engine run-up following an annual inspection.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA09FA343
- Event ID
- 20090613X04639
- Case number
- ERA09FA343
- 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: 7aba5508d477ed83000d5c1ed121e9b8df9dd27f86017a2f3b11886206f49329; retrieved 2026-09-13T20:12:08.336Z.