NYC95LA015 · Cessna 172B
Cessna 172B · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC95LA015
- 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 172B
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- 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
- N7491E
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- 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
- Approach
- 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 starvation
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Fuel tank selector position, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRPLANE WAS ON APPROACH TO RUNWAY 35, AND WAS TURNING TO THE BASE LEG WHEN THE AIRPLANE'S ENGINE LOST POWER. THE PILOT ELECTED TO MAKE A FORCED LANDING IN A FIELD, SOUTH OF THE AIRPORT, AND STRUCK A ROCK WALL. AT THE ACCIDENT SITE THE FUEL SELECTOR WAS FOUND ON THE LEFT FUEL TANK, AND THE LEFT FUEL TANK HAD LESS THEN 1 GALLON OF FUEL. ACCORDING TO THE CHECKLIST USED BY THE STUDENT PILOT DURING THE PRE-FLIGHT INSPECTION, HE WAS TO, 'CHECK THE FUEL SHUTOFF VALVE 'ON.' ACCORDING TO CESSNA'S 172B MANUAL, THE FUEL SELECTOR HAS FOUR POSITIONS WHICH ARE LABELED 'BOTH OFF,' 'LEFT TANK,' 'RIGHT TANK,' AND 'BOTH ON.' THE CESSNA MANUAL STATES, 'THE 'BOTH ON' POSITION PROVIDES FUEL FLOW FROM BOTH TANKS SIMULTANEOUSLY TO PROVIDE MAXIMUM SAFETY.' THE 'BOTH ON' POSITION IS WHERE THE FUEL SELECTOR SHOULD BE FOR TAKEOFF LANDING, AND NORMAL OPERATIONS. AN EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE REVEALED NO DISCREPANCIES.
Probable cause
the fuel selector was in the improper position, which resulted in a total loss of engine power, due to fuel starvation, a forced landing, and subsequent impact with a stone wall.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC95LA015
- Event ID
- 20001206X02515
- Case number
- NYC95LA015
- 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: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 53001386d132c117f7c6d35023c2fefc7b9f98dc8adf171e570923867b192207; retrieved 2026-09-23T00:30:47.489Z.