ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 45055
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| Date: | Thursday 9 October 2003 |
| Time: | 17:20 |
| Type: |  Cessna 177B Cardinal |
| Owner/operator: | Private |
| Registration: | N30921 |
| MSN: | 17701546 |
| Total airframe hrs: | 3083 hours |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 3 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Chinook, MT -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Private |
| Departure airport: | Great Falls International Airport, MT (GTF/KGTF) |
| Poplar Airport, MT (42S) | |
| Investigating agency: | NTSB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
On October 9, 2003, approximately 1720 mountain daylight time, a Cessna 177B, N30921, collided with a tree during an attempted engine-out forced landing about five miles south of Chinook, Montana. The private pilot and one of his passengers received fatal injuries, and a second passenger received serious injuries. The aircraft, which was owned and operated by the pilot, was destroyed by a post-impact fire. The 14 CFR Part 91 personal cross-country flight, which departed Great Falls, Montana, about 50 minutes earlier, was being operated in visual meteorological conditions. No flight plan had been filed. There was no report of an ELT activation, and the ELT itself was destroyed by the fire.
While in cruise flight the aircraft suddenly lost all engine power, and after unsuccessfully attempting to get the engine restarted, the pilot attempted a forced landing on a nearby gravel road. During that attempt, the pilot failed to adequately compensate for strong crosswinds, and therefore inadvertently clipped the top of a tree that was located immediately adjacent to the approach end of the section of road he was trying to land upon. A post-accident inspection of the engine determined that the carburetor had separated from the engine in cruise flight, due to the fact that there were no longer any nuts on any of the four carburetor mount retaining lug bolts. The carburetor mounting flange holes all remained intact, and none of the four mounting bolts showed any signs of damaged or distorted threads. Recent use of Marihuana was determined to have impaired the pilot's judgment at the time he was attempting the forced landing.
Probable Cause: The total loss of engine power in cruise flight due to the separation of the carburetor from its mounting bolts, and the pilot's failure to adequately compensate for strong crosswinds while attempting the subsequent forced landing. Additional factors include strong crosswinds, a tree immediately adjacent to the gravel road that the pilot chose to land on, and the pilot's impairment due to recent use of Marihuana.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
NTSB: https://www.ntsb.gov/_layouts/ntsb.aviation/brief.aspx?ev_id=20031017X01769&key=1
Location
Images:
Photo: NTSB
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 28-Oct-2008 00:45 | ASN archive | Added |
| 21-Dec-2016 19:24 | ASN Update Bot | Updated [Time, Damage, Category, Investigating agency] |
| 08-Dec-2017 19:59 | ASN Update Bot | Updated [Operator, Source, Narrative] |
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