WPR11LA311 · Cessna R182
Cessna R182 · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) en route
From Hesperia Airport (L26) to Adelanto Airport (52CL)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR11LA311
- 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 R182
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 182
- 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
- N7392X
- Operator
- Chris E Waggener · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hesperia Airport (L26), Hesperia, CATo Adelanto Airport (52CL), Adelanto, CA
- 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 · climb to cruise
- 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)
- 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
The airplane's engine stopped making sufficient power to maintain a climb, so the pilot decided to turn back toward the airport. However, after he flew into a valley, he realized that the airplane would not make it back to the airport. After seeing power lines along the airplane's flightpath, he turned the airplane toward an open field. The airplane subsequently hit the ground hard and then hit a tree, which separated the right wing from the airframe. During the postaccident engine examination, the muffler was disassembled. One internal baffle cone was found separated from the end plate and was blocking the opening of the muffler. Upon shaking the muffler, the baffle cone was free to move around within the muffler assembly. The other baffle cone had a hole eroded in its center. Internal engine failures can cause partial or complete engine power loss by restricting the flow of the exhaust gases. If pieces of the internal baffling break loose and partially or totally block the flow of exhaust gases, an engine failure can occur. It is likely the exhaust gas was partially or totally blocked by the separated baffle cone during the flight, which resulted in a loss of engine power.
Probable cause
The separation of the end baffle cone inside the muffler, which blocked airflow through the engine after takeoff and resulted in a loss of engine power and an off-airport landing into obstacles.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR11LA311
- Event ID
- 20110705X34957
- Case number
- WPR11LA311
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2011-07-06.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 27a96811a51f3ce44c58baaac3f708867c8c12e6c82ab487b173d730422300d1; retrieved 2026-09-15T16:23:29.688Z.