At 15:00 Pacific time, a Cessna 172RG lost engine power and made an emergency landing in a dirt field in Stanford, coming to rest inverted. The flight instructor and pilot/student were not injured. The instructor said they were about 2,000 feet msl when he noted a loss of oil pressure. At 1,600 feet the engine stopped. He set up for the emergency landing on a side road but a truck entered the road, and he had to maneuver the airplane onto an open field. Investigators found the oil had been changed the day before the accident and the oil filter had not been tightened or safety-wired to the engine. The bottom of the fuselage, firewall, and the rear of the engine were coated with oil and the engine was seized.
March 20, Stanford, Calif. / Cessna 172RG
At 15:00 Pacific time, a Cessna 172RG lost engine power and made an emergency landing in a dirt field in Stanford, coming to rest inverted. The flight instructor and pilot/student were not injured. The instructor said they were about 2,000 feet msl when he noted a loss of oil pressure. At 1,600 feet the engine stopped. He set up for the emergency landing on a side road but a truck entered the road, and he had to maneuver the airplane onto an open field. Investigators found the oil had been changed the day before the accident and the oil filter had not been tightened or safety-wired to the engine. The bottom of the fuselage, firewall, and the rear of the engine were coated with oil and the en...
Key Takeaways:
- A Cessna 172RG performed an emergency landing in a dirt field near Stanford after losing engine power due to a sudden loss of oil pressure, ultimately coming to rest inverted with no injuries to the instructor and student pilot.
- The engine failure was attributed to an improperly tightened and unsafety-wired oil filter, which had been serviced the day before the incident, leading to oil loss and engine seizure.
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