CHI97LA007 · Cessna 182
Cessna 182 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From DuBois Regional Airport (DUJ) to Ottawa Executive Airport (Z98)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI97LA007
- 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 182
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 182
- 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
- N5720B
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From DuBois Regional Airport (DUJ), DuBois, PATo Ottawa Executive Airport (Z98), Zeeland, MI
- 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 downwind
- 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
- Tree(s)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Fuel system › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Refueling, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The flight departed Du Bois, Pennsylvania with an intended destination of Zeeland, Michigan. The pilot planned a refueling stop at Henry County Airport, Napoleon, Ohio. The airport was closed, so the pilot decided to continue on to Hillsdale Airport, Hillsdale, Michigan with 19 to 20 gallons remaining. The pilot advised Toledo Approach Control he needed to divert to Hillsdale Airport for fuel. One to two miles away from Hillsdale Airport on a downwind for runway 27, the engine lost power. The airplane struck trees in an attempt to land on runway 27. Post examination of the airplane revealed no fuel in the right fuel tank. The left fuel tank contained three quarts of fuel. Further inspection of the fuel tanks revealed all eight retaining clips dislodged on both cells. The right hand fuel cell retained its shape fairly well, however the left fuel cell was found collapsed.
Probable cause
the pilot's improper in-flight planning/decision and failure to refuel which led to fuel exhaustion.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI97LA007
- Event ID
- 20001208X06853
- Case number
- CHI97LA007
- 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: 0250e845f1a1f39ebf9ddb9dd0e1232c228ac7a09c9bd38d46327ba233491801; retrieved 2026-09-21T12:23:51.452Z.