NYC97LA192 · Cessna 150G
Cessna 150G · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From W90 to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC97LA192
- 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
- N4748X
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From W90To not recorded
- 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 final
- 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 › Mixture, improper use of
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The student pilot said he performed his pre-landing check and reduced power to 1,500 RPM for an approach. The initial approach angle was steep, so he 'cut' engine power and slipped the airplane to increase his rate of descent. When he turned final, his approach angle was too shallow. He tried to apply power, but received no response; the engine continued to run at idle rpm. The student stated the airplane was at approximately 50 feet on final approach, when the propeller stopped turning. He attempted to maneuver through an area of low obstacles, which included 5 to 6 foot high tree stumps, and cross a road to a grass area on the airport. On short final, the airplane struck a tree stump, the road, a ditch, and nosed over. Examination of the cockpit revealed the throttle and carburetor heat controls were full forward, the mixture control was pulled out. The airplane was recovered to a hanger, and the engine was started. According to the owner, the engine ran 'perfect.'
Probable cause
the pilot's movement of the mixture control to the idle cut-off position, during an approach to land, which resulted in a loss of engine power and a forced landing before reaching the runway.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC97LA192
- Event ID
- 20001208X08919
- Case number
- NYC97LA192
- 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: 8251ac181ef2482cd00b851f8bc2abbcad3da6c67b818862d1ea848bfc80bf7e; retrieved 2026-09-22T18:32:28.025Z.