ERA14LA142 · Cessna 172R
Cessna 172R · Accident: powerplant system/component malfunction/failure en route
From MKL · Jackson, MS to Augusta Regional At Bush Field (AGS)
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
- ERA14LA142
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Cessna 172R
- 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
- N9417Z
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Narrative disagrees
- From MKL · Jackson, MSTo Augusta Regional At Bush Field (AGS), Augusta, GA
- Aircraft age
- About 17 years (built 1997)
- 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
- Powerplant system/component malfunction/failure
- 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
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that, during the climb after takeoff in instrument meteorological conditions, he noted that the engine was losing oil pressure rapidly. He immediately made a 180-degree turn to return to the departure airport. While inbound on the instrument landing system (ILS) approach, he realized that the airplane was too high, so he executed a 360-degree descending turn. He then again proceeded inbound on the ILS approach. He continued the descent but, because the airplane had not captured the glideslope, he executed a missed approach. He then circled the airplane around and re-established the airplane on the localizer. Subsequently, the engine lost all power, and the airplane began descending. The pilot subsequently landed the airplane on a road just north of the airport. During the landing, the right wing impacted a highway sign, which resulted in substantial damage to the right wing. The airplane then veered right and entered a cornfield.
Examination of the wreckage revealed the presence of oil on the back of the engine, firewall, and belly. The engine was started with the engine cowling removed, and oil was observed to appear on the back of the accessory pad near the lower vacuum pump. Further examination of the area revealed that the accessory drive adapter gasket was the source of the leak. Review of the airplane's maintenance records revealed that, on the day before the accident, the lower vacuum pump had been removed and that a new vacuum pump, shaft seal, and accessory drive adapter gasket had been installed. Examination revealed that the proper gasket was installed; however, it was distorted and showed signs of excessive compression and "squeezeout," which indicated that the nuts had been overtorqued during installation.
Probable cause
A total loss of engine power due to maintenance personnel’s improper installation of the lower vacuum pump.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA14LA142
- Event ID
- 20140305X83714
- Case number
- ERA14LA142
- 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: 91350e36758d072866c927182f07dd5d277a668b71ba12d9d33ca9244694a4ba; retrieved 2026-09-15T23:22:41.285Z.