Cessna 172 N7748U

Summary

On 2 July 2016 at about 17:00 local time, a Cessna 172 registered N7748U was involved in an accident near Salmon, Idaho, 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

2 July 2016 at 17:00

Classification

Accident

Location

Salmon, Idaho, United States

Nearest airport

Lemhi County Airport (SMN)

Coordinates

45.0964, -113.6897

Aircraft

Cessna 172

Registration

N7748U

Category

Airplane

Year built

1964

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Instructional

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Salmon → Salmon

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

WPR16LA133

Nobody was injured.

A loss of engine power due to water in the fuel system. Contributing to the accident was an inadequate preflight inspection that failed to eliminate water from the fuel system. 

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The flight instructor stated that during an instructional flight, he configured the airplane for a simulated engine failure by applying carburetor heat and decreasing the engine power. The student pilot followed emergency procedures, used the checklist, and prepared to land. When the carburetor heat control was pushed back in and the throttle was advanced, the engine suddenly lost power. The flight instructor tried restarting the engine to no avail and initiated a forced landing, during which the airplane struck a fence. Postaccident examination of the airplane revealed that the original inline fuel strainer was replaced with an aftermarket inline fuel strainer with a manual sump valve on the strainer bowl. The inline fuel strainer drain knob from the original fuel strainer was removed from the instrument panel. The fuel strainer was drained and found to be filled about 3/4 with water. The student pilot stated that the only sumps that were drained during the preflight inspection were the wing tank sumps. He further stated that he did not know about the fuel strainer having a sump and that the flight instructor never told him about it. The flight instructor stated that he performed a preflight inspection after the student pilot had drained the wing tanks and fuel strainer sumps. He further stated that he thought the student pilot found some water in the left wing tank but did not drain the fuel strainer. It is likely that the engine lost power due to water in the inline fuel strainer, which led to the forced landing.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.