CHI93FA272 · Cessna 172N
Kansas Air Center Cessna 172N · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Manhattan Regional Airport (MHK) to Chicago Executive Airport (PWK)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI93FA272
- 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 172N
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- 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
- N733XS
- Operator
- Kansas Air Center
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Manhattan Regional Airport (MHK), Manhattan, KSTo Chicago Executive Airport (PWK), Wheeling, IL
- 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; Wire, transmission
- 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(cfi) › Refueling, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A COMPUTER FLIGHT PLANNING PROGRAM PRINTOUT FOUND IN THE WRECKAGE SHOWED AN ESTIMATED 3.5 HRS EN ROUTE, WITH A 4.7 HR TOTAL RANGE. THE PILOTS DEVIATED FROM THE PLANNED DUE TO SEVERE THUNDERSTORM ACTIVITY IN THE AREA. AFTER 3 HRS 51 MIN OF FLIGHT, APPROX 7 MI FROM THE DESTINATION AIRPORT, THE ENGINE LOST POWER. THE AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH POWER LINES DURING THE FORCED LANDING, AND CAME TO REST INVERTED IN A CORN FIELD. POSTACCIDENT EXAMINATION REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF USEABLE FUEL IN THE FUEL SYSTEM. THERE WAS NO EVIDENCE OF PREIMPACT MECHANICAL MALFUNCTION. THE AIRPLANE WAS EQUIPPED WITH A 180 HP ENGINE (ORIGINAL EQUIPMENT WAS A 160 HP ENGINE) IN ACCORDANCE WITH STC SA703GL. THE STC DOCUMENTATION INDICATED THERE WAS 'NO CHANGE' TO THE PERFORMANCE SECTION OF THE AIRPLANE FLIGHT MANUAL. THE COMPUTER PROGRAM FUEL CONSUMPTION PERTAINED TO THE 160 HP ENGINE, AND SHOWED A FUEL CONSUMPTION OF 8.8 GPH. THE POH FOR A CESSNA 172Q (180 HP ENGINE) INDICATES THAT A FUEL CONSUMPTION RATE OF 10.0 GPH WAS MORE REALISTIC.
Probable cause
THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND'S FAILURE TO REFUEL THE AIRPLANE PRIOR TO FUEL EXHAUSTION. RELATED FACTORS TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: INADEQUATE CERTIFICATION/APPROVAL OF THE STC BY THE FAA, INADEQUATE PERFORMANCE DATA, AND UNAVAILABLE FUEL CONSUMPTION INFORMATION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI93FA272
- Event ID
- 20001211X12825
- Case number
- CHI93FA272
- 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: 8e37dfce6c43bb6c9ad793469425d615b2d59520ce4f07c7b579b2e761cf6123; retrieved 2026-09-21T14:15:18.665Z.