BFO92LA110 · Cessna 152
Sanford Air Cessna 152 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Bangor International Airport (BGR) to Concord Municipal Airport (CON)
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO92LA110
- 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
- N93361
- Operator
- Sanford Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Bangor International Airport (BGR), Bangor, METo Concord Municipal Airport (CON), Concord, NH
- 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
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Belmont, NH, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
DURING A SUPERVISED SOLO CROSS COUNTRY, THE FLIGHT WAS DIVERTED FROM THE PLANNED FLIGHT ROUTE. THE PILOT STATED THAT FUEL CONSUMPTION WAS GREATER THAN WHAT SHE HAD PLANNED FOR. THE PILOT SAID SHE REALIZED THE AIRPLANE DID NOT HAVE ENOUGH FUEL TO MAKE HER NEXT DESTINATION, SO SHE STARTED TO DIVERT TO AN ALTERNATE LANDING SITE. SHORTLY THEREAFTER, AT APPROXIMATELY 2,000 FEET MEAN SEA LEVEL, THE ENGINE QUIT. THE PILOT MADE A FORCED LANDING IN A FIELD. THE ON SCENE INVESTIGATION REVEALED THERE WAS NO FUEL IN THE FUEL TANKS. THE PILOT REPORTED THERE WERE NO AIRPLANE MECHANICAL MALFUNCTIONS. THE PILOT STATED IN THE RECOMMENDATION SECTION OF THE ACCIDENT REPORT, ' (1) THINGS DIDN'T GO AS PLANNED: PLAN FUEL STOPS FOR WORST POSSIBLE SCENARIO, AND (2) MONITORED MORE CLOSELY THE TIME SPENT IN THE AIR INSTEAD OF WHAT THE FUEL GAUGES READ.' THE PILOT'S FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR STATED THAT HE ASSUMED SHE WOULD REFUEL AFTER THE FIRST LEG OF THE FLIGHT. THE FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR STATED, IN HINDSIGHT, HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN MORE SPECIFIC ABOUT WHEN AND WHERE THE PILOT SHOULD REFUEL.
Probable cause
INADEQUATE IN-FLIGHT PLANNING/DECISION BY THE PILOT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO92LA110
- Event ID
- 20001211X15077
- Case number
- BFO92LA110
- 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: 289869369e7df7f15fdf445ab514b5559daa9655882dd850573b88552c731449; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:12:21.830Z.