NYC93LA007 · Piper PA-38-112
Dawn Aeronautics Piper PA-38-112 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Eastern WV Regional Airport/Shepherd Field (MRB) to Wilmington Airport (ILG)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC93LA007
- 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
Piper PA-38-112
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-38
- 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
- N2434B
- Operator
- Dawn Aeronautics
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Eastern WV Regional Airport/Shepherd Field (MRB), Martinsburg, WVTo Wilmington Airport (ILG), New Castle, DE
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern turn to base
- 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)
- 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
- Fuel system › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Refueling, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE STUDENT PILOT WAS CONDUCTING A SOLO CROSS COUNTRY FLIGHT. SHE WAS PLANNING TO LAND AT AN AIRPORT TO REFUEL, BUT HER FLIGHT TIME WAS RUNNING BEHIND SCHEDULE, SO SHE DECIDED TO OVERFLY THE AIRPORT AND CONTINUE TO HER FINAL DESTINATION. ENROUTE SHE REALIZED THAT THE FUEL SUPPLY ONBOARD THE AIRPLANE WAS INADEQUATE FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE FLIGHT, SO SHE REQUESTED ASSISTANCE FROM ATC. SHE REQUESTED VECTORS TO AN AIRPORT WHERE SHE COULD OBTAIN FUEL. ATC VECTORED HER TO AN AIRPORT, BUT THE FIRST ATTEMPT TO LAND WAS UNSUCCESSFUL, AND A GO-AROUND WAS PERFORMED. ON THE SECOND ATTEMPT, THE ENGINE QUIT ON BASE LEG. THE PILOT LANDED SHORT OF THE RUNWAY IN A CORN FIELD. THE FAA FOUND NO SIGNIFICANT FUEL IN THE TANKS.
Probable cause
THE IMPROPER INFLIGHT PLANNING AND DECISION BY THE STUDENT PILOT RESULTING IN FUEL EXHAUSTION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC93LA007
- Event ID
- 20001211X15937
- Case number
- NYC93LA007
- 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: 58500cd97341d229728041675420f3372c625248e13d94f9016b8c972001e501; retrieved 2026-09-23T02:34:30.250Z.