ATL95LA035 · Cessna 310N
Cessna 310N · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Peachtree City Falcon Field (FFC) to Covington Municipal Airport
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL95LA035
- 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 310N
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 310
- 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
- N4104Q
- Operator
- Gielow, Harold R. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Peachtree City Falcon Field (FFC), Peachtree City, GATo Covington Municipal Airport
- 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 · VFR pattern base
- 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 management, improper
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Covington, GA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRCRAFT COLLIDED WITH TERRAIN WHILE EXECUTING A FORCED LANDING INTO COVINGTON, GEORGIA. THE COMMERCIAL PILOT AND HIS PILOT RATED PASSENGER HAD COMPLETED A FLIGHT FROM PEACHTREE CITY, GEORGIA, AND WERE IN THE TRAFFIC PATTERN AT COVINGTON MUNICIPAL AIRPORT FOR A VISUAL APPROACH WHEN THE AIRCRAFT LOST POWER IN BOTH ENGINES, AS THE AIRCRAFT TURNED FROM THE BASE LEG TO FINAL. THE PILOTS HAD FLOWN DURING CRUISE WITH THE FUEL SELECTOR IN THE AUXILIARY FUEL TANKS POSITION, AND HAD SWITCHED TO THE MAIN FUEL TANKS POSITION WHILE TURNING ONTO THE DOWNWIND LEG. LESS THAN 42 OUNCES OF FUEL WAS DRAINED FROM THE LEFT AUXILIARY TANK, AND LESS THAN ONE GALLON WAS DRAINED FROM THE RIGHT AUXILIARY TANK. THE MAIN TIP TANKS WERE FOUND TO HAVE 35 GALLONS EACH.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S IMPROPER FUEL MANAGEMENT WHICH RESULTED IN FUEL STARVATION AND LOSS OF ENGINE POWER.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL95LA035
- Event ID
- 20001207X02819
- Case number
- ATL95LA035
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: e5b427e0b9d23a8026fa237236a1919ee44c97bec6ceb5e8c93270ab865193e0; retrieved 2026-09-23T00:20:01.198Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: destination. The narrative states the pilots "had completed a flight from Peachtree City, Georgia, and were in the traffic pattern at Covington Municipal Airport for a visual approach" when both engines lost power; the destination was not recorded.