CEN25LA101 · Cessna 177A
Eagle Sky Patrol Cessna 177A · Accident: fuel related en route
From Northwest Arkansas National Airport (KXNA) to New Century AirCenter Airport (KIXD)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN25LA101
- 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 177A
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 177
- 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
- N30413
- Operator
- Eagle Sky Patrol
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Northwest Arkansas National Airport (KXNA), Bentonville, ARTo New Century AirCenter Airport (KIXD), Olathe, KS
- Aircraft age
- About 57 years (built 1968)
- 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 · descent
- 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
- Fuel related
- 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
- Aircraft › Fluids/miscellaneous hardware
- Organizational issues › Support/oversight/monitoring
- 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 he was descending the airplane to begin patrolling a section of pipeline when, without warning, the engine began to surge between low and high power. He diverted towards the nearest airport and began troubleshooting the issue. When it became apparent that he could not maintain altitude and would not make the diversion airport, he performed an off-airport landing in a field. During the landing the airplane struck a 3- to 4-foot-tall berm, which resulted in substantial damage to the engine mount and fuselage. During the post-accident investigation, a significant amount of water was found in the inline strainer to the engine. Follow-up interviews with the fixed base operator and pilot revealed that the pilot treated the airplane’s fuel with a 70% isopropyl alcohol (antiseptic) solution before the accident flight. The pilot was unaware that the antiseptic also contained purified water. It is likely that the airplane’s fuel became contaminated with water from the antiseptic which resulted in the loss of engine power. Review of company documentation revealed vague instructions for treating the fuel with isopropyl alcohol. For example, the instructions stated to use one bottle per 25 gallons of fuel, but did not specify the size/volume of the bottle. Specific guidance for the accident airplane was found in the manufacturer’s service information letter. The letter stated it is permissible to use any high quality isopropyl alcohol, for example one meeting Federal Specification TT-I-735a. The letter stated the isopropyl alcohol may be blended with the fuel in a concentration not greater than 1% by volume.
Probable cause
A loss of engine power that resulted from fuel contamination when it was treated with a 70% isopropyl alcohol solution (antiseptic) that contained water. Contributing to the accident were vague fuel treatment instructions provided by the operator.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN25LA101
- Event ID
- 20250224199749
- Case number
- CEN25LA101
- 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: 8e2c76e53e04506f72c9f8f30c108d3ac3d211884cb9fcb2918478e403bf26ff; retrieved 2026-09-16T19:41:12.501Z.