FTW97LA243 · Cessna 152
Cessna 152 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From Stephens County Airport (BKD) to Brownwood Regional Airport (BWD)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW97LA243
- 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
- N6099L
- Operator
- Spencer Jones
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Stephens County Airport (BKD), Breckenridge, TXTo Brownwood Regional Airport (BWD), Brownwood, TX
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Unsuitable terrain or takeoff/landing/taxi area, selected
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The student pilot elected to make a precautionary landing due to low fuel concerns (not knowing how much fuel remained). She reported the gauges indicated EMPTY. The engine continued to run. The airplane had flown 69 minutes since refueling. En route, the COM/NAV equipment did not operate for the pilot. The amps looked 'OK.' The pilot saw a private airport with power lines and trees; however, she 'did not feel comfortable landing there, due to the powerlines and trees.' She decided to land the airplane in a field. During the landing roll, the airplane nosed over coming to rest inverted in soft sand. There were no known maintenance discrepancies prior to the flight. The student pilot had 154.8 hrs in the airplane(34.2 hrs solo, 74.6 hrs. local dual, 12.5 hrs solo x-country, and 33.5 hrs dual x-country with dual instruction to all points of this x-country route). The flight instructor reported working with the student 'on decision making for a long time.' The electrically operated flaps were found in the fully extended position and the airplane contained 12 gallons of fuel. Following a recharge of the battery, the fuel tanks were filled, the fuel gauges read 'FULL,' and the COM/NAV equipment operated. A mechanic performed tests of the fuel indication and transmitting system and reported that the test indicated 'no malfunctions of either system.'
Probable cause
the student pilot's improper inflight planning/decision, and selection of unsuitable terrain for a precautionary landing. Factors relating to the accident were: a fluctuation in the electrical system, due to an undetermined reason, the student pilot's lack of confidence in her personal ability, and soft terrain in the precautionary landing area.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW97LA243
- Event ID
- 20001208X08140
- Case number
- FTW97LA243
- 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: d6806c7137b8215b473c20df7b5a39d0a9b9de979faac15e8999881769c222c3; retrieved 2026-09-21T21:24:07.404Z.