CHI93LA010 · Cessna 152
Branch County Aviation Cessna 152 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From SKY · Sandusky, OH to D96 · Coldwater, MI
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI93LA010
- 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
- N69223
- Operator
- Branch County Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From SKY · Sandusky, OHTo D96 · Coldwater, MI
- 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 › Refueling, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE STUDENT PILOT WAS ON THE RETURN LEG OF A CROSS COUNTRY FLIGHT WHEN A LOSS OF ENGINE POWER OCCURRED. HE WAS EIGHT MILES WEST OF AN AIRPORT WHEN THE ENGINE QUIT. THE PILOT ATTEMPTED TO MAKE A FORCED LANDING ON RUNWAY 09 WHICH WAS 3801 FEET LONG. THE WIND WAS 270 AT 15 TO 20 KNOTS. THE PILOT WAS HIGH AND FAST WHEN TRYING TO LAND AT THE AIRPORT. HE ABORTED THE ATTEMPT AND TRIED TO LAND IN A FIELD TO THE EAST OF THE AIRPORT, BUT WAS FAST AGAIN. HE PULLED UP A SECOND TIME AND MADE A TURN TO THE RIGHT AND MADE A HARD LANDING IN A FIELD. APPROXIMATELY ONE QUART OF FUEL WAS IN THE LEFT TANK, AND APPROXIMATELY ONE AND ONE-HALF GALLONS OF FUEL WAS IN THE RIGHT WING. THE PILOT STATED, '...I MADE THE DECISION TO NOT OBTAIN FUEL,' BEFORE HE DEPARTED ON HIS RETURN LEG OF THE FLIGHT.
Probable cause
INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT PLANNING IN NOT REFUELING THE AIRCRAFT AND A POORLY PLANNED FORCED LANDING BY THE PILOT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI93LA010
- Event ID
- 20001211X15835
- Case number
- CHI93LA010
- 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: 0f4c07afe1a4096fd226f863840bc0fafe7f0f672468eca64b48b2a6661b7c3a; retrieved 2026-09-23T02:32:42.147Z.