CEN14FA435 · Cessna 172N
Cane River Aviation Cessna 172N · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) during initial climb
From Natchitoches Regional Airport (IER) to Natchitoches Regional Airport (IER)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN14FA435
- 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
- 1 · 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 172N
- 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
- N734YW
- Operator
- Cane River Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Natchitoches Regional Airport (IER), Natchitoches, LATo Natchitoches Regional Airport (IER), Natchitoches, LA
- Aircraft age
- About 37 years (built 1977)
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft power plant
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Before departure for the flight, the private pilot/owner reported that he conducted the preflight and run-up and that the airplane was operating normally. During takeoff, he rotated the airplane about 70 kts and the climb out was normal. About 300 feet above ground level, the engine suddenly lost power and shook violently. The pilot scanned for potential emergency landing areas and decided to attempt to land in a soybean field that was about 135 degrees to his left. The airplane overflew the soybean field and impacted a line of trees at the end of the field.
The postaccident examination of the engine revealed that the No. 1 cylinder exhaust valve rocker retaining stud was backed out of the cylinder head threads by about 5 threads, or about ¼ inch, and the valve rocker and pushrod were loose. The clearance between the valve rocker and the valve stem was too great to allow the exhaust valve to open as the engine rotated. The last engine overhaul was conducted on May 26, 1990, and had 958.1 hours of operation since the overhaul. The engine manufacturer recommends that engines that have not accumulated the recommended hourly time between overhauls be overhauled during the 12th year after the last overhaul; it had been over 24 years since the last overhaul.
A postaccident examination of the airplane revealed that the flaps were in the up position and that the flap handle, flap indicator, and the flap actuator were in the up position. Had the pilot lowered the flaps, flown S-turns, or slipped the airplane, he most likely would have been able to land the airplane in the soybean field, avoiding impact with trees at the end of the field.
Probable cause
The partial loss of engine power due to the exhaust valve rocker retaining stud backing out of the cylinder head, which resulted in the exhaust valve being stuck in the closed position. Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s failure to configure the airplane and fly it in a manner that would allow him to make the emergency landing in the field rather than overfly it, and the pilot’s failure to have the engine overhauled according to the recommended overhaul interval.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN14FA435
- Event ID
- 20140817X42440
- Case number
- CEN14FA435
- 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. 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: 64df6ee4c6fb44d3bf4c037f61edd23ff5531396eddbb02aec1e0f728735702a; retrieved 2026-09-14T17:24:09.967Z.