CHI94LA236 · Cessna 175
Cessna 175 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Chicago Rockford International Airport (RFD) to CPS · SAINT LOUIS, MO
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's injuries. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI94LA236
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Cessna 175
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 175
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N7101M
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Chicago Rockford International Airport (RFD), Rockford, ILTo CPS · SAINT LOUIS, MO
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- En route · cruise
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Fuel exhaustion
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Fuel consumption calculations, inaccurate
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT STATED THAT HE THOUGHT HE HAD ADEQUATE FUEL FOR THE INTENDED FLIGHT, BUT SAID THAT ALTHOUGH HE DID VISUALLY CHECK THE FUEL TANKS PRIOR TO THE DEPARTURE ON THE ACCIDENT FLIGHT, HE DID NOT KNOW HOW MUCH FUEL WAS ON BOARD THE AIRPLANE. HE SAID THAT HE DID NOT ATTEMPT TO USE THE FUEL GAGES IN THE AIRPLANE, BUT RELIED ON THE USE OF A STOPWATCH TO DETERMINE REMAINING FUEL. THE AIRPLANE SUSTAINED A TOTAL LOSS OF ENGINE POWER AND A FORCED LANDING ENSUED. THE AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH A RESIDENCE DURING THE FORCED LANDING AND ONE OF THE OCCUPANTS OF THE HOUSE SUSTAINED MINOR INJURIES. FOUR OTHERS IN THE HOME WERE NOT INJURED. AN INSPECTION OF THE AIRPLANE SUBSEQUENT TO THE ACCIDENT REVEALED ONLY UNUSABLE FUEL REMAINED IN THE FUEL TANKS.
Probable cause
the pilot inadequate preflight planning/preparation and his inaccurate fuel consumption calculations.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI94LA236
- Event ID
- 20001206X01704
- Case number
- CHI94LA236
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1994-07-22.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 6ab352e836db2fb231fb72ffdbf1c307e354c831bf0639d5d8bdb5bfc4220e6e; retrieved 2026-09-21T13:46:27.626Z.