ATL95LA052 · Cessna 152
Astron Enterprises Cessna 152 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From DeKalb Peachtree Airport (PDK) to 21A · SHELBY COUNTY, AL
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL95LA052
- 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 152
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 152
- 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
- N6470P
- Operator
- Astron Enterprises
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From DeKalb Peachtree Airport (PDK), Chamblee, GATo 21A · SHELBY COUNTY, AL
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › Fuel consumption calculations, misjudged
- Pilot in command › Mixture, improper use of
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT REPORTED THAT, APPROXIMATELY 20 MILES FROM SHELBY COUNTY AIRPORT, THE ENGINE BEGAN TO SPUTTER. THE PILOT HAD PLANNED TO LAND AT AN INTERVENING DESTINATION, WALKER COUNTY AIRPORT TO REFUEL. HOWEVER, HE BELIEVED HE HAD ENOUGH FUEL TO MAKE HIS DESTINATION, SHELBY COUNTY AIRPORT. UNABLE TO REACH THE AIRPORT, THE PILOT ATTEMPTED TO LAND AT A PRIVATE AIRSTRIP. A LANDING APPROACH WAS MADE TO THE PRIVATE AIRSTRIP. THE PILOT SAW THAT HE COULD NOT MAKE THE FIELD AND ATTEMPTED A GO-AROUND. DURING THE GO-AROUND, THE ENGINE QUIT AND THE AIRCRAFT IMPACTED THE ROOF OF A HOUSE. AFTER THE ACCIDENT, THE PILOT STATED THAT THERE WAS A PROBLEM WITH FUEL. A SALVAGE COMPANY RETRIEVED THE WRECKAGE FROM THE ROOF OF THE HOUSE AND DRAINED THE FUEL FROM THE AIRCRAFT. FUEL DRAINED PARTIALLY FILLED A TWO GALLON CONTAINER. IN A POST-ACCIDENT INTERVIEW, THE PILOT STATED THAT HE DID NOT LEAN THE FUEL MIXTURE.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO LEAN THE FUEL MIXTURE, STOP AT THE FIRST DESTINATION TO REFUEL, AND HIS INCORRECT FUEL CONSUMPTION CALCULATIONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL95LA052
- Event ID
- 20001207X02927
- Case number
- ATL95LA052
- 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: 597517989770e41b276fa8e700685204943a8e152f43604132acd07c28f33924; retrieved 2026-09-23T00:13:19.473Z.