MIA92FA110 · Cessna 152
Cessna 152 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA92FA110
- 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
- 1 · 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
- N47343
- Operator
- Wesley T. Herron · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Stall
- 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
- Pilot in command › Airspeed(vso), not maintained
- Pilot in command › Fuel tank selector position, improper
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE COMMERCIAL PILOT DEPARTED ON A VFR MAINTENANCE FLIGHT. VFR CONDITIONS PREVAILED AND NO FLIGHT PLAN WAS FILED. WITNESSES STATED THE AIRPLANE DEPARTED FROM RUNWAY 09 WITHOUT USING ALL AVAILABLE RUNWAY. THE AIRPLANE BECAME AIRBORNE AT MIDFIELD AND CLIMBED TO ABOUT 100-200 FEET AGL WHEN THE ENGINE QUIT. THE NOSE OF THE AIRPLANE WAS OBSERVED TO PITCH UP 10-20 DEGREES. A WITNESS STATED THE AIRPLANE SLOWED AND THE PROPELLER STOPPED TURNING. THE AIRPLANE MADE A STEEP LEFT TURN ESTIMATED IN EXCESS OF 60 DEGREES ANGLE OF BANK. THE NOSE OF THE AIRPLANE PITCHED DOWN 60 DEGREES, AND THE AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH THE TERRAIN. THE AIRPLANE WAS DESTROYED AND THE PILOT WAS FATALLY INJURED. EXAMINATION OF THE AIRPLANE WRECKAGE REVEALED THE FUEL SHUTOFF VALVE WAS IN THE OFF POSITION.
Probable cause
THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN AIRSPEED (VSO) WHILE MANEUVERING DURING A FORCED LANDING. THIS RESULTED IN AN INADVERTENT STALL, IN FLIGHT LOSS OF CONTROL, AND COLLISION WITH TERRAIN. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND'S FAILURE TO ENSURE THE FUEL TANK SELECTOR WAS IN THE ON POSITION. THIS RESULTED IN A TOTAL LOSS OF ENGINE POWER DURING INITIAL TAKEOFF CLIMB DUE TO FUEL STARVATION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA92FA110
- Event ID
- 20001211X14472
- Case number
- MIA92FA110
- 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: 48da95ff97ffc50b17fe6e17a6b33aff0d64f1407cf226ee563e3a52c92b9729; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:15:46.046Z.