CEN14LA333 · Cessna 172R
University of Central Missouri Cessna 172R · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) during initial climb
From Downtown Airport (3DW) to Joplin Regional Airport (JLN)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN14LA333
- 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 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
- N468CM
- Operator
- University of Central Missouri
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Downtown Airport (3DW), Springfield, MOTo Joplin Regional Airport (JLN), Joplin, MO
- Aircraft age
- About 14 years (built 2000)
- 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 (partial)
- 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
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot stated that the accident occurred as he was completing a touch-and-go landing following a cross-country flight. He reported that, after an uneventful landing and during the subsequent initial climb, the engine "grumbled" and began to "cut in and out." The pilot immediately told the airport tower controller that the airplane had an engine issue, reduced engine power, and fully extended the wing flaps for landing on the remaining runway. During the landing roll, the airplane overran the end of the runway before it collided with a light pole associated with the runway approach lighting system. Following the accident, the pilot was able to taxi the airplane back onto the runway, under normal engine power, before he shut down the engine on a nearby taxiway.
A postaccident examination established that the fuel system contained about 42 gallons of aviation fuel that was evenly distributed between the two wing fuel tanks. The engine was started by following the normal checklist procedure, and it developed takeoff power during an operational test run. No hesitation or engine roughness was experienced during the operational test run, and the engine responded to corresponding throttle movements throughout the test run. Thus, the postaccident operational test run did not reveal any anomalies with the fuel-injected engine that would have prevented normal operation. The reason for the partial loss of engine power could not be determined.
Probable cause
The partial loss of engine power for reasons that could not be determined because an operational test run of the engine did not reveal any anomalies that would have precluded normal operation.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN14LA333
- Event ID
- 20140702X00114
- Case number
- CEN14LA333
- 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: f74f7291cf2fedb5fdea3b065bfe6b18e0de577954b023ceda55cfd3ec4f32a9; retrieved 2026-09-16T00:47:13.468Z.