CEN18LA040 · Cessna 150F F
Cessna 150F F · Accident: loss of engine power (total) en route
From Midland, TX to San Angelo, TX
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN18LA040
- 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 150F F
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 150
- 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
- N8637S
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Midland, TXTo San Angelo, TX
- Aircraft age
- About 52 years (built 1965)
- 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
- 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); Wire
- 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 student pilot stated that the preflight, engine run-up, and takeoff were normal with no anomalies noted. About 15 minutes into the solo cross-country flight, the engine lost total power, and he performed a forced landing to a tree-covered area. During the forced landing, the airplane impacted a power line and trees. Examination of the airplane revealed oil residue on the back of the engine, lower engine cowling, and the right main landing gear strut. The top mounting nut on the generator was missing, and the two lower mounting nuts were loose. Evidence of oil leakage past the generator mounting gasket was identified after removal of the generator from the engine. A hole in the engine crankcase was noted above the No. 1 cylinder. In addition, examination of the engine run-up and taxiway area, consistent with where the student pilot completed his engine run before the flight, showed a large oil stain and residual oil. The aircraft records did not reveal any recent maintenance to the generator or engine accessories; however, it is likely that when the generator was installed, the nuts were not properly tightened, leading them to back off over time, which led to the loss of oil.
Probable cause
The improper installation of the generator by unknown personnel, which resulted in a loss of oil and subsequent engine failure.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN18LA040
- Event ID
- 20171127X63140
- Case number
- CEN18LA040
- 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: ae6285a00ead2d5721a62f55df2120e082868a1dec6fed8f45a634cf777305ea; retrieved 2026-09-16T06:02:24.613Z.