ATL93LA034 · Cessna 172H
Columbus Flight Academy Cessna 172H · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Middle Georgia Regional Airport (MCN) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL93LA034
- 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 172H
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- 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
- N8819Z
- Operator
- Columbus Flight Academy
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Middle Georgia Regional Airport (MCN), Macon, GATo 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
- Approach
- 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; Tree(s)
- 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, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
ACCORDING TO THE OPERATOR, THE STUDENT PILOT AND HIS FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR COMPLETED THE PREFLIGHT PLANNING WHICH INCLUDED COMPUTING REQUIRED FUEL. THE FLIGHT PLANNING CONCLUDED THAT THE PILOT HAD AMPLE FUEL PLUS APPROXIMATELY 1.7 HOURS OF FUEL UPON RETURNING TO COLUMBUS. THE ENGINE QUIT ON APPROACH AND THE AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH TREES TWO MILES SHORT OF COLLUMBUS. THE EXAMINATION OF THE AIRPLANE FAILED TO DISCLOSE A MECHANICAL PROBLEM. THE STUDENT PILOT FLEW THE AIRPLANE 4.7 HOURS PRIOR TO THE TOTAL LOSS OF ENGINE POWER. THE STUDENT PILOT ALSO FAILED TO ACCOUNT FOR THE ADDITIONAL FLIGHT TIME ABOVE THE PLANNED FLIGHT TIME REQUIRED FOR THE FLIGHT.
Probable cause
THE STUDENT PILOT'S FAILURE TO PLAN A REFUELING STOP FOR THE FLIGHT WHICH RESULTED IN THE COMPLETE EXHAUSTION OF THE FUEL SUPPLY AND A LOSS OF ENGINE POWER.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL93LA034
- Event ID
- 20001211X16119
- Case number
- ATL93LA034
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1992-12-12.
- API snapshot SHA-256: ea435d5a78fb7809b9efdc0e8fa350318f30a65295503acd80a7f96e7e13b351; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:04:28.862Z.