20111126028029A

On November 26, 2011, about 1333 eastern daylight time, a Cessna 177RG, N5AW, operated by a private individual, was substantially damaged when it lost engine power and made an emergency landing in a field in Tallapoosa, Georgia. The certificated private pilot, kim woliver, and two passengers, patricia woliver and alex woliver, were fatally injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and an instrument flight rules flight plan was filed for the flight that departed the knoxville downtown island airport (dkx), knoxville, Tennessee, destined for the northwest Florida beaches international airport (ecp), panama city, Florida. The personal flight was conducted under 14 code of federal regulations part 91.according to preliminary information obtained from the federal aviation administration (FAA), atlanta center, the pilot was in cruise flight at 4,000 feet, and in contact with the atlanta air route traffic control center when he declared an emergency due to low engine oil pressure. He requested radar vectors to the nearest airport and was given a radar vector of 130 degrees to fly direct to west Georgia regional airport (ctj), carrollton, Georgia. The pilot advised the controller that he was unable to land there, and was going to land in a field. Radar contact was lost and there were no other radio transmissions made by the pilot. According to a witness, he watched as the airplane flew at a low altitude toward his home. The airplane made a steep banking turn into the field, before colliding with a tree line at the end of a field. The airplane burst into fire and the witness ran over to the accident site. When he arrived at the site he saw one of the passengers walking around outside the airplane. He recalled that the passenger was severely burned, but was alert. The passenger told him that the engine "blew." Shortly thereafter emergency responders arrived and the passenger was airlifted to grady hospital, atlanta, Georgia. The accident site was located about 11 nautical miles northwest of ctj. The airplane came to rest in a flat attitude, on a course of about 006 degrees. The cockpit, cabin, and fuselage were consumed by fire. The right and left wings were fire damaged. The empennage was fire damaged and buckled. All major portions of the aircraft were accounted for at the accident site. During engine tear down, there was no creditable evidence to determine what caused the engine oil low pressure indication. Subsequently, number two connecting rod bolts sheared and engine stopped rotating.