CEN10LA282 · Cessna 172 D
Adventure Leasing Cessna 172 D · Accident: fuel contamination during initial climb
From Las Cruces International Airport (LRU) to Las Cruces International Airport (LRU)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN10LA282
- 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 D
- 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
- N2723U
- Operator
- Adventure Leasing
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Las Cruces International Airport (LRU), Las Cruces, NMTo Las Cruces International Airport (LRU), Las Cruces, NM
- 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
- Fuel contamination
- 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
- Aircraft › Fluids/miscellaneous hardware
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The engine lost partial power shortly after takeoff. During the forced landing, the airplane went through a chain link fence before coming to rest against a sand berm and mesquite tree. There were other documented reports of partial power failures involving this airplane. The engine was partially disassembled and examined. The number 5 cylinder exhaust valve was found to be stuck open. A clear, unidentified liquid was found in the fuel line. A significant amount of water was drained from the fuel system, mostly from the left tank. It was reported that the airplane had sat outside during the winter in several rain storms. Maintenance personnel reported a considerable amount of water was drained from the right fuel tank during the most recent annual inspection.
Probable cause
A loss of engine power due to fuel starvation as a result of water contamination in the fuel, and the pilot's inadequate preflight inspection. Contributing the accident was an inoperative number 5 cylinder exhaust valve.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN10LA282
- Event ID
- 20100601X70959
- Case number
- CEN10LA282
- 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: 77e5fbdbc80e37e1313e7666812a8e683e6ad8da17393e5f38387a71038e887e; retrieved 2026-09-15T14:18:09.027Z.