FTW93LA050 · Cessna 150
American Flight Academy Cessna 150 · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Ada Regional Airport (ADH) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW93LA050
- 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 150
- 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
- N6539L
- Operator
- American Flight Academy
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ada Regional Airport (ADH), ADA, OKTo 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
- En route · descent
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- Wire, transmission
- 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 › Refueling, not performed
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Norman, OK, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
DURING A CROSS COUNTRY FLIGHT, THAT COMMENCED DURING DAYLIGHT HOURS AND TERMINATED UNDER DARK NIGHT CONDITIONS, THE AIRPLANE LOST ENGINE POWER. DURING THE LANDING TO UNSUITABLE TERRAIN THE AIRPLANE STRUCK ELECTRICAL WIRES AND A TELEPHONE POST. A WITNESS SAW THE AIRPLANE LANDING LIGHT, BUT DID NOT HEAR THE ENGINE RUNNING. THE PILOT DID NOT REFUEL AFTER HIS 1ST LEG AND WAS UNABLE TO DO SO AT THE NEXT 2 LANDING SITES. ENROUTE TO HIS 4TH DESTINATION THE LOSS OF POWER OCCURRED FOLLOWING APPROXIMATELY 5 HOURS AND 45 MINUTES OF FLIGHT. AN EXAMINATION OF THE AIRPLANE AT THE ACCIDENT SITE REVEALED, ONE GALLON OF FUEL IN THE AIRPLANE AND NO FUEL SPILLAGE ON THE GROUND. THE PILOT INFORMED THE CONTROL FACILITY THAT HE WAS 10 MILES FROM THE INTENDED LANDING SITE AND A SHORT TIME LATER REPORTED HIS ENGINE SHUTDOWN AND HE WAS OUT OF FUEL. THE PILOT WAS NOT USING HIS SHOULDER HARNESS AND HE SUSTAINED INJURIES TO THE FACIAL AREAS. THE PILOT WAS ISSUED HIS PRIVATE CERTIFICATE 10 DAYS PRIOR.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO REFUEL THE AIRPLANE AND POWER LOSS DUE TO FUEL EXHAUSTION. FACTORS WERE THE DARK NIGHT AND LACK OF SUITABLE TERRAIN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW93LA050
- Event ID
- 20001211X16160
- Case number
- FTW93LA050
- 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: 8fd6f025029677fc0d18270626367341b9dae1a32580f496ab2f79c1be83c8f8; retrieved 2026-09-21T14:37:39.512Z.