NYC92LA134 · Cessna 150L
Cessna 150L · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Finleyville Airpark (G05) to Finleyville Airpark (G05)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC92LA134
- 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 150L
- 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
- N6849G
- Operator
- William J. Lehner · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Finleyville Airpark (G05), FINLEYVILLE, PATo Finleyville Airpark (G05)
- 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
- 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 › Preflight planning/preparation, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT DEPARTED ON A LOCAL FLIGHT. HE REPORTED THE FUEL GAUGES READING APPROXIMATELY 1/4 AT TAKEOFF. WHILE IN CRUISE FLIGHT AFTER TAKEOFF, THE ENGINE QUIT DUE TO FUEL EXHAUSTION. POST ACCIDENT EXAMINATION FOUND THE CARBURETOR FLOAT LEVEL SET HIGHER THAN RECOMMENDED, A SOOTY EXHAUST, AND THE RIGHT FUEL TANK FUEL GAUGE READING APPROXIMATELY 1/4 FULL WHEN THE FUEL TANK WAS VERIFIED EMPTY. THE PILOT SAID HE CHECKED THE FUEL GAUGES AND DIPPED THE FUEL TANKS PRIOR TO TAKEOFF, HOWEVER, THE AIRPLANE WAS AT A GRASS FIELD AIRPORT, AND THE PILOT WAS NOT CERTAIN THE AIRPLANE WAS ENTIRELY LEVEL.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO DETERMINE THE FUEL QUANTITY PRIOR TO DEPARTURE, WHICH RESULTED IN A POWER LOSS DUE TO FUEL EXHAUSTION, OVER UNSUITABLE TERRAIN. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE AN IMPROPERLY READING RIGHT FUEL GAUGE, AND AN IMPROPERLY ADJUSTED CARBURETOR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC92LA134
- Event ID
- 20001211X14988
- Case number
- NYC92LA134
- 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: 1561696507a005a5d75340c51bf5aec89a3f439ee9881a9a8a4ac861a11178c8; retrieved 2026-09-23T03:00:00.212Z.