Narrative:

We were in cruise flight at 3500 feet MSL and everything was normal. Suddenly the engine started to backfire and then the power rolled back to idle. I started to head for the nearest airport and accomplished the engine failure checklist. I was unable to restore power and we performed a landing in a farmer's field. There were no injuries and no damage to the aircraft.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: The pilot of a C172 reported an engine malfunction that resulted in an off-field landing.

Narrative: We were in cruise flight at 3500 feet MSL and everything was normal. Suddenly the engine started to backfire and then the power rolled back to idle. I started to head for the nearest airport and accomplished the engine failure checklist. I was unable to restore power and we performed a landing in a farmer's field. There were no injuries and no damage to the aircraft.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.