Cessna 152 N49158

Summary

On 30 April 2015 at about 16:15 local time, a Cessna 152 registered N49158, operated by US Aviation Group LLC, was involved in an incident near Pilot Point, Texas, United States. 2 people were on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was slightly damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

30 April 2015 at 16:15

Classification

Incident

Location

Pilot Point, Texas, United States

Coordinates

33.3792, -95.9372

Aircraft

Cessna 152

Registration

N49158

Category

Airplane

Year built

1977

Engines

1

Operator

US Aviation Group LLC

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Instructional

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Denton → Denton

Aircraft damage

Minor

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

CEN15IA230

Nobody was injured.

The loss of engine power due to the separation of the distributor gear arm on the left magneto.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The flight instructor and student pilot were conducting a training flight. After the student completed some maneuvers, the engine started running roughly. The flight instructor made several attempts to correct the problem without success. The airplane was unable to maintain altitude, so the flight instructor performed a forced landing to a field, which resulted in minor damage to the airplane. An examination of the engine revealed that the Nos. 2 and 4 lower sparkplugs were lead-fouled and inoperative and that the Nos. 1 and 3 lower sparkplugs were lead-fouled but still operational. Further examination revealed that the distributor gear arm on the left magneto had separated and that the distributor gear arm on the right magneto was loose. Following the incident, the operator examined its fleet and found an additional 19 magnetos with loose distributor gear arms. The magneto manufacturer reported that it had seen 16 magnetos that exhibited similar failures. The manufacturer subsequently issued a service bulletin recommending that distributor gear assemblies in the affected magneto, which included the incident magneto, be removed and replaced at the "earliest convenient maintenance time, not to exceed the next 50 hours" with a replacement gear assembly.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.