February 25, Hudson, Fla. / Cessna 152

At about 0900 eastern time, a Cessna 152 suffered a catastrophic engine failure about 10 minutes after takeoff, forcing the solo student pilot to make a forced landing. The pilot was not injured. The pilot said he was in cruise flight at 2,300 feet when he heard a loud bang and observed smoke coming up over the windshield. He started for a golf course, but noticed golfers in the way, so he transitioned to a road. On the rollout, the left wing his a sign. Examination of the airplane revealed a hole in both tops of the engine case halves in the vicinity of the No.3 and No. 4 cylinder, with a broken connecting rod sitting in the hole. The last engine overhaul was eight years ago, at engine total time of 6,342.3 hours. At the time of the accident the engine had accumulated 3,278.5 hours since the overhaul.