ERA20LA299 · Cessna 172 P
Wayman Aviation Academy Cessna 172 P · Accident: loss of engine power (total) while maneuvering
From North Perry Airport (HWO) to North Perry Airport (HWO)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA20LA299
- 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 172 P
- 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
- N65645
- Operator
- Wayman Aviation Academy
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From North Perry Airport (HWO), Hollywood, FLTo North Perry Airport (HWO), Hollywood, FL
- Aircraft age
- About 38 years (built 1982)
- 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)
- 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
- Aircraft › Fluids/miscellaneous hardware
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, not marked as estimated; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
While maneuvering during the instructional flight the flight instructor noticed that the engine oil pressure was “remarkably low”, and the engine oil temperature was “a bit high.” He took control of the airplane and flew toward nearby roadways in anticipation of a forced landing. The engine then began to run rough, vibrate, and lost partial power. Shortly thereafter, the engine vibrated “incredibly” and lost all power. The flight instructor was unable to restart the engine and performed a forced landing into vegetation. During landing, the airplane flipped over and sustained substantial damage to the wings and forward lower fuselage.
Examination of the engine revealed that the Nos. 1 and 3 cylinder connecting rods were fractured near their crankshaft end. The remnants and fracture surfaces of the rods, as well as their respective journals on the crankshaft were discolored (blackened and bluish surfaces) and smeared, consistent with thermal stress/damage. The No.4 cylinder connecting rod remained attached to the crankshaft but would not rotate. The crankshaft end of the rod was discolored (black and rust colored), consistent with thermal stress. Bearing material was extruded between the rod and the crankshaft lobe. Holes were found in the crankcase near the base of the No.4 cylinder and on the bottom of each crankcase half. The damage and discoloration of the connecting rod and crankshaft components, as well as the reported loss of oil pressure, suggest a lack of engine lubrication.
At the accident site, oil was found coating the bottom side of the fuselage, consistent with venting oil overboard during flight. However, it could not be determined if the oil exited through the breaches in the engine crankcase after the connecting rod failures, or, prior to the failures through some other path. There were no obstructions found in any the visible oil passages in the crankshaft, and the engine oil pump was undamaged, contained no debris, and operated smoothly. It is possible that one or more of the connecting rod bearings spun inside its race, blocking the oil passage(s), which would have resulted in thermal damage to the rods and crankshaft. However, given the evidence available during the engine examination, the reason for the lack of lubrication could not be determined.
Probable cause
A total loss of engine power due to the failure of the Nos. 1 and 3 connecting rods from lack of lubrication.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA20LA299
- Event ID
- 20200827X25843
- Case number
- ERA20LA299
- 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, cause areas. 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: 86fc16f5198d1f97e4a24e50d5d68e8e19c3110cb3eae54e741542cf6f33f4e9; retrieved 2026-09-16T12:56:31.852Z.