ERA25LA123 · Cessna 172C
Cessna 172C · Accident: powerplant system/component malfunction/failure during initial climb
From Argyle Airport (1C3) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA25LA123
- 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 172C
- 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
- N1609Y
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Argyle Airport (1C3), Argyle, NYTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 63 years (built 1962)
- 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
- Powerplant system/component malfunction/failure
- 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 oper/perf/capability
- Aircraft › Aircraft power plant
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that the accident flight was the first flight after an annual inspection was completed and a new oil filter adapter was installed. As part of the installation, the mechanic installed the oil temperature gauge probe into the oil filter adaptor housing. The engine was not test run and inspected for oil leaks following the installation. Before the flight, the pilot completed an engine run-up and prolonged taxi to ensure the engine was near operating temperature. During the run-up he did not notice any abnormalities and the engine gauges were indicating correctly. The takeoff and entrance into the traffic pattern were uneventful until the upwind leg when he noticed the oil pressure gauge indicated 0 psi and the engine made unusual sounds, but the engine was still running. He completed at 180° turn and set up for landing on another runway with a tailwind. The airplane was high and fast on approach, then landed long and ran off the end of the runway. The airplane nosed over in a snowbank and came to rest inverted resulting in substantial damage to both wings and empennage. After the accident, the pilot accessed the engine compartment and removed the oil filler cap where he observed no remaining oil in the engine. Postaccident examination of the airplane revealed engine oil was observed covering the engine compartment, surrounding areas, and the leading edges of the airplane. Oil was added to the engine and a functional test run was completed. An oil leak was observed from the oil temperature gauge probe that was installed in the back of the oil filter adaptor. The oil temperature probe threaded into the housing, but the oil temperature probe was not seated properly and remained loose after the attachment nut was tightened.; it could not be seated without utilizing a specific adaptor fitting. The adaptor fitting was removed from the old housing and installed onto the new oil filter adaptor. After installation, the oil temperature probe seated properly.
Probable cause
The mechanic’s incorrect installation of the oil temperature gauge probe in the oil filter adapter and failure to test run the engine for oil leaks after the installation, which resulted in a total loss of oil and the pilot’s decision to perform a precautionary landing. Contributing was the pilot’s long/fast landing, which resulted in a runway overrun.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA25LA123
- Event ID
- 20250224199743
- Case number
- ERA25LA123
- 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: ca8a79641c7e291145800fc1e5d11a5bd2a066934fb1b5bd449b5c72b18fbddc; retrieved 2026-09-16T19:40:55.505Z.