On June 6, 2012, during a pre-flight examination of a Cessna 182R, N73466, at the Hilo International Airport, Hilo, Hawaii, substantial damage to the engine firewall was discovered. The airplane was registered to and operated by Civil Air Patrol, Inc., under the provisions of Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 91. There were no reported injuries. The flight date and time which resulted in the damage to the airplane was undetermined.

Review of a flight log submitted by the operator revealed that six flights, totaling 13 hours of flight time had occurred since the airplane had undergone maintenance on May, 29, 2012. It was not determined how the damage occurred to the firewall. The operator reported that there were no reported hard landings during this timeframe.