CEN17FA332 · Cessna 180J J
Cessna 180J J · Accident: loss of engine power (total) while maneuvering
From Otsego Lake, MI to Otsego Lake, MI
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN17FA332
- 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 180J J
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 180
- 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
- N180LP
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Otsego Lake, MITo Otsego Lake, MI
- Aircraft age
- About 44 years (built 1973)
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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 (total)
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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 systems
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The private pilot was flying the airplane at a low altitude when the engine lost total power. The pilot reported that the engine did not sputter, bang, or run roughly before the loss of engine power; however, several witnesses heard the airplane's engine running roughly immediately before the crash. One witness reported that the airplane's engine fluctuated between "sputtering" and "revving" before it lost total power. The airplane collided with trees and terrain during the subsequent forced landing and came to rest inverted.
Postaccident examination of the airplane and engine did not reveal any evidence of preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. Additionally, the airplane had ample fuel available that did not contain any water or debris. The engine also demonstrated the ability to produce rated horsepower during a postaccident operational test run. The carburetor heat control was in the "OFF" position.
The weather conditions at the time of the accident were conducive to moderate carburetor icing at cruise power and serious carburetor icing at descent power. The pilot reported that he did not use carburetor heat during the flight because he was operating the engine at a cruise power setting. The airplane flight manual states that carburetor heat should be used upon a loss of engine power or an unexplained decrease of manifold pressure, a roughly running engine, or before the throttle is moved to idle for landing. Additionally, the use of carburetor heat might be required to avoid carburetor ice accumulation during a descent at a reduced engine power setting. According to a Federal Aviation Administration Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin, pilots should use carburetor heat while in weather conditions where carburetor icing is probable. Based on the available information, the total loss of engine power was likely due to carburetor ice accumulation. Additionally, the low altitude at which the loss of engine power occurred precluded the pilot from reestablishing normal engine operation before the airplane descended into trees.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to use carburetor heat while operating in weather conditions that were conducive to carburetor ice formation, which resulted in a total loss of engine power due to carburetor ice accumulation.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN17FA332
- Event ID
- 20170828X72758
- Case number
- CEN17FA332
- 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: a11895cb16cf1862dfc4f655c657e12b0a60c02304bf1557977fecb2604e8dca; retrieved 2026-09-16T05:46:13.133Z.