LAX95LA231 · Cessna 150G
Cessna 150G · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Paso Robles Municipal Airport (PRB) to Lemoore Naval Air Station (Reeves Field) Airport (NLC)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX95LA231
- 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 150G
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 150
- 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
- N3421J
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Paso Robles Municipal Airport (PRB), Paso Robles, CATo Lemoore Naval Air Station (Reeves Field) Airport (NLC), LEMOORE NAS, CA
- 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 › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Refueling, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AT THE COMPLETION OF A STUDENT SOLO CROSS-COUNTRY WHILE TURNING TO LEMOORE NAVAL AIRSTATION AT 1000 FEET MSL, THE ENGINE STOPPED. THE PILOT LANDED IN A DIRT FIELD, AND VEERED LEFT WHILE ROLLING OUT TO AVOID A TRACTOR. THE LEFT WING STRUCK A STEEL FENCE POST AND THE RIGHT WING STRUCK THE GROUND. THREE GALLONS OF FUEL WERE FOUND IN BOTH WING FUEL TANKS IN THE AIRCRAFT'S RESTING POSITION. THE TOTAL UNUSABLE FUEL IS 1.5 GALS. THE PILOT STATED THAT HIS FLIGHT ITINERARY WAS FROM NAS LEMOORE TO HANFORD, THEN TO PASO ROBLES WITH A FINAL LEG BACK TO NAS LEMOORE. HE REPORTED THAT DURING HIS PREFLIGHT INSPECTION OF THE AIRCRAFT AT NAS LEMOORE, THE RIGHT WING FUEL TANK WAS FILLED TO THE TABS, WHILE THE LEFT TANK 'WAS A LITTLE BIT UNDER.' THE PILOT DID NOT USE A DIPSTICK OR OTHER QUANTIFYING DEVICE TO DETERMINE THE EXACT QUANTITY. HE STATED THAT HE DID NOT REFUEL IN PASO ROBLES.
Probable cause
Fuel exhaustion due to the student pilot's inadequate preflight inspection and his failure to refuel the aircraft en route. A factor in the accident was inadequate supervision of the student by the flying club and the student's flight instructor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX95LA231
- Event ID
- 20001207X03759
- Case number
- LAX95LA231
- 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: 5c807ca183aa5391fc831de9486c87bc89c3adfb8cea9af22a9db88475d02c95; retrieved 2026-09-22T23:43:35.181Z.