ERA17LA185 · Cessna 182 S
Cessna 182 S · Accident: powerplant system/component malfunction/failure en route
From Trenton Mercer Airport (TTN) to Montgomery County Airpark (GAI)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA17LA185
- 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
- 0
- 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 182 S
- 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
- N378ES
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Trenton Mercer Airport (TTN), Trenton, NJTo Montgomery County Airpark (GAI), Gaithersburg, MD
- Aircraft age
- About 20 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
- 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
- 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
- Pole
- 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 › Fluids/miscellaneous hardware
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The private pilot reported that, about 20 minutes into a cross-country, personal flight, he noticed a loss of oil pressure, Subsequently, he attempted to divert to a nearby airport. The pilot stated that, a few minutes later, the engine began to "shudder," making it difficult to control the airplane, and the oil temperature had increased, so he decided to shut down the engine. The pilot was unable to glide the airplane to the diversionary airport, so he conducted an off-airport landing at a nearby field, during which the airplane struck a utility pole, which resulted in the left wing separating from the airplane.
Examination of the airframe revealed oil streaks along the fuselage belly aft of the engine breather tube. Metal fragments were found trapped in the oil suction screen. About 1/4 quart of oil was present in the sump. Examination of the engine revealed that the crankcase and oil sump were intact, and no indications of oil leaks from the crankcase were found. Thumb compression and suction were established on all cylinders except for the No. 6 cylinder. The No. 6 connecting rod was separated from the crankshaft, and the connecting rod journal and rod end were discolored, smeared, and had gouges, consistent with thermal damage. Remnants of connecting rod bearing material were found loose inside the crankcase. A borescope examination of the remaining cylinders did not reveal any damage or unusual marks. Based on this evidence, it is likely that an engine crankcase overpressurization occurred, which resulted in the ejection of nearly all the engine oil through the breather tube; the reason for the overpressurization could not be determined. The engine likely began to shudder after the overpressurizaton as a result of the No. 6 cylinder connecting rod failing due to a lack of lubrication.
Probable cause
An engine crankcase overpressurization and the subsequent loss of engine oil for reasons that could not be determined, which resulted in the failure of the No. 6 cylinder connecting rod due to a lack of lubrication.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA17LA185
- Event ID
- 20170522X91053
- Case number
- ERA17LA185
- 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: 59267f022d1a7e4fb1b2047db1e692416118b51c543b51046b096c3b3df52e43; retrieved 2026-09-16T05:18:44.077Z.