Cessna 172K N46492

Summary

On 20 March 2012 at about 23:45 local time, a Cessna 172K registered N46492, operated by Maine Coastal Flight, was involved in an accident near Belfast, Maine, United States. 2 people were on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

20 March 2012 at 23:45

Classification

Accident

Location

Belfast, Maine, United States

Nearest airport

Belfast Municipal Airport (BST)

Coordinates

44.4089, -69.0197

Aircraft

Cessna 172K

Registration

N46492

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Maine Coastal Flight

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Instructional

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Bar Harbor → Portland

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Night

NTSB number

ERA12LA241

Nobody was injured.

The flight instructor’s failure to ensure the radio was set correctly to activate the pilot-controlled lighting, which resulted in poor positioning for a proper landing and a subsequent off-runway forced landing during an attempted go-around. Contributing to the accident was a partial loss of engine power due to carburetor ice.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

According to the pilots, while in cruise flight at 6,500 feet mean sea level, the engine lost partial power. The flight instructor applied full rich mixture and carburetor heat. Maintaining partial engine power, the flight diverted to a nearby airport. The pilots were unable to activate the pilot-controlled lighting at the airport and elected to utilize the airport's rotating beacon to locate the runway. The runway was located; however, the airplane was not in a position to make a landing, and the flight instructor applied full power in order to perform a go-around. During the go-around the engine experienced a total loss of power, and the flight instructor subsequently executed a forced landing to a nearby road. During the landing, the airplane struck a utility pole and nosed over. A postaccident test run of the engine revealed no evidence of any mechanical anomalies. According to postaccident photographs of the cockpit, the audio control panel was selected to Comm 1; however, Comm 2 was the radio that was set to the airport's common traffic advisory frequency, which was used for the pilot-controlled lighting. The airplane was operating in conditions conducive to serious carburetor icing at cruise power at the time of the accident. The probability existed that the airplane was operated in an area conducive to induction icing, and, although the flight instructor applied carburetor heat, the accumulation of the ice was greater than the application of heat could melt. It is further possible that during the go-around the abrupt throttle movement to the full power setting caused the total loss of engine power.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.