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

Attributes
ACN	1378258
Time
Date	201608
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Skyhawk 172/Cutlass 172
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Cruise
Component
Aircraft Component	Engine
Person 1
Function	Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Flight Instructor Flight Crew Flight Engineer Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Multiengine
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 190 Flight Crew Total 16000 Flight Crew Type 2000
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

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.

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.