NYC95LA019 · Lake LA-250
Lake LA-250 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From John C Tune Airport (JWN) to Westfield-Barnes Regional Airport (BAF)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC95LA019
- 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
Lake LA-250
- Aircraft type
- Lake LA-250
- 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
- N85JW
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From John C Tune Airport (JWN), Nashville, TNTo Westfield-Barnes Regional Airport (BAF), BARNES MUNI, MA
- 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 · descent
- 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; Wire, transmission
- 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 › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › Fuel consumption calculations, inaccurate
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Westfield, MA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT DEPARTED ON A 750 MILE CROSS COUNTRY FLIGHT IN HIS AMPHIBIAN AIRPLANE. THE FUEL TANKS WERE FILLED TO THEIR CAPACITY OF 88 GALLONS. DURING THE ARRIVAL AND DESCENT AT THE DESTINATION AIRPORT, THE PILOT EXPERIENCED A COMPLETE LOSS OF ENGINE POWER. THE PILOT ATTEMPTED AN ENGINE RESTART WITHOUT SUCCESS AND DECLARED AN EMERGENCY WITH THE AIRPORT CONTROL TOWER. THE PILOT DECIDED THAT HE WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO GLIDE TO THE AIRPORT AND ATTEMPTED TO LAND ON A HIGHWAY. ON FINAL APPROACH TO THE HIGHWAY, WITH THE LANDING GEAR AND FLAPS EXTENDED, THE AIRPLANE STRUCK WIRES AND NOSED OVER ONTO THE HIGHWAY. THERE WAS NO ODOR OF FUEL AT THE ACCIDENT SCENE. EXAMINATION OF THE 5 FUEL TANKS REVEALED ONLY 8 OUNCES OF FUEL IN THE LEFT SPONSON TANK AND 12 OUNCES OF FUEL IN THE CENTER FUSELAGE TANK. A POST ACCIDENT ENGINE EXAMINATION WAS COMPLETED AND THE ENGINE PRODUCED RATED POWER AND SHOWED NO EVIDENCE OF MALFUNCTIONS.
Probable cause
the pilot's improper in-flight planning and inaccurate fuel consumption calculations, resulting in fuel exhaustion and the subsequent forced landing at night.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC95LA019
- Event ID
- 20001206X02519
- Case number
- NYC95LA019
- 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: 4b6f60d2ffc42b3405ee4348111180175084d92f38e93b2bce59b95ef9edf213; retrieved 2026-09-21T22:27:02.679Z.