ATL93LA051 · Cessna 152
Mcclure Aircraft Cessna 152 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Concord, NC (no airport) to 5N4 · Lincolnton, NC
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL93LA051
- 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
- N25865
- Operator
- Mcclure Aircraft
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Concord, NC (no airport)To 5N4 · Lincolnton, NC
- 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 base
- 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 › Became lost/disoriented, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT HAD DEPARTED THE 1ST STOP OF A TWO STOP CROSS COUNTRY FLIGHT. SHE DISCOVERED AFTER ABOUT 30 MINUTES THAT SHE WAS OFF COURSE. COURSE DEVIATIONS WERE MADE LOOKING FOR A RECOGNIZABLE LANDMARK, WITHOUT SUCCESS. A GRASS STRIP WAS LOCATED WITH TWO TRAILERS. AFTER LANDING, NO ONE WAS LOCATED IN THE TRAILERS. A PASSING TRUCK DRIVER, ON A NEARBY HIGHWAY, WAS STOPPED TO ASK DIRECTIONS. SHE TOOK OFF AGAIN BUT WAS STILL UNABLE TO LOCATE LANDMARKS SHE KNEW. ASSISTANCE WAS THEN REQUESTED FROM CHARLOTTE TOWER, WHO VECTORED HER TOWARD SALISBURY. SHE ENTERED THE LANDING PATTERN AT SALISBURY, MANEUVERING TO AVOID ANOTHER AIRPLANE IN THE PATTERN. AS THE AIRPLANE WAS TURNED ONTO THE BASE LEG, POWER WAS ADDED TO SLOW THE DESCENT RATE & THE ENGINE QUIT. A FORCED LANDING WAS MADE IN A FIELD. THE AIRPLANE HIT A DIRT BERM DURING THE LANDING ROLL.
Probable cause
THE PILOT BECAME LOST AND EXHAUSTED THE AIRPLANE FUEL SUPPLY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL93LA051
- Event ID
- 20001211X11650
- Case number
- ATL93LA051
- 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: e42b65e798bfaf85fca9b2fdacff975c09365fcc75ac2dfeace28c7d41b02494; retrieved 2026-09-23T02:23:24.039Z.