ERA12IA169 · Cessna 172S
Civil Air Patrol Cessna 172S · Incident: part(s) separation from aircraft en route
From Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport (JAN) to Hawkins Field (HKS)
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
- ERA12IA169
- 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
- Incident
- 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 172S
- 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
- N427CP
- Operator
- Civil Air Patrol
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Narrative disagrees
- From Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport (JAN), Jackson, MSTo Hawkins Field (HKS), Bay St. Louis, MS
- 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
- Part(s) separation from aircraft
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- None
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft propeller/rotor
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to the pilot, he conducted a thorough preflight inspection of the airplane with no anomalies noted. Then, when the airplane was at an altitude of 7,000 feet mean sea level, an extreme vibration began. The pilot reduced engine power, verified the airplane’s flight controls were still operational, and declared an emergency with the air traffic controller that he was in contact with. As the vibration continued, the pilot elected to shut down the engine and, as the propeller was windmilling, the vibration continued. The pilot reduced the airspeed in order to stop the propeller rotation, then immediately obtained best glide airspeed once the propeller stopped. As soon as the propeller stopped windmilling, the vibration ceased. The pilot landed the airplane without incident and it was towed to the fixed base operator. A postincident engine teardown revealed that there were no anomalies that would have precluded normal operation. Examination of a fracture surface on one of the propeller blades revealed that the blade tip failed as a result of fatigue cracking that initiated at the leading edge of the blade. The propeller blade was inspected about 72 operating hours before the incident, as part of the airplane’s 100-hour annual inspection, and no discrepancies were noted at that time.
Probable cause
The separation of the propeller blade tip due to fatigue cracking that initiated at the blade’s leading edge.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA12IA169
- Event ID
- 20120202X81145
- Case number
- ERA12IA169
- 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, damage. 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: cc08d1aa0447a78df74f3d36cc41063af24b9bc06e85ea3926a24ab7d5b98c8b; retrieved 2026-09-15T17:09:34.107Z.