LAX91LA262 · Cessna 152
Flight Simulation Cessna 152 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From SXC · CATALINA ISLAND, CA to Oceanside, CA
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX91LA262
- 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
- N747CM
- Operator
- Flight Simulation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From SXC · CATALINA ISLAND, CATo Oceanside, CA
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Refueling, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AFTER DEPARTURE FROM SAN CARLOS IN THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, THE PILOT FLEW NON-STOP TO THE AIRPORT ON SANTA CATALINA ISLAND, WHICH IS 22 MILES OFF SHORE TO THE SOUTH OF THE LOS ANGELES BASIN. THE AIR MILE DISTANCE BETWEEN SAN CARLOS AND SANTA CATALINA WAS MEASURED AT ABOUT 340 NAUTICAL MILES. THE PILOT THOUGHT HE COULD OBTAIN FUEL AT SANTA CATALINA, HOWEVER, THE AIRPORT FACILITY DIRECTORY NOTES THAT FUEL IS UNAVAILABLE AT THE AIRPORT. THE PILOT DEPARTED SANTA CATALINA AND ELECTED TO CONTINUE THE FLIGHT TO OCEANSIDE, CALIFORNIA, THE FLIGHT'S ULTIMATE DESTINATION. THE STRAIGHT LINE DISTANCE FROM SANTA CATALINA ISLAND TO OCEANSIDE WAS MEASURED AT 58 NAUTICAL MILES, ENTIRELY OVER WATER. THE DISTANCE FROM THE ISLAND TO THE NEAREST AIRPORT IN THE LOS ANGELES BASIN WAS MEASURED AT 26 NAUTICAL MILES.
Probable cause
FUEL EXHAUSTION DUE TO THE PILOT'S IMPROPER PREFLIGHT PLANNING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX91LA262
- Event ID
- 20001212X17313
- Case number
- LAX91LA262
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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 1991-06-17.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 1325e371855d7dc5ec46acfa39afa35b18ed4e5ff1eeca6f7733fd03461b6865; retrieved 2026-09-23T04:03:46.139Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: destination. The narrative states the pilot "ELECTED TO CONTINUE THE FLIGHT TO OCEANSIDE, CALIFORNIA, THE FLIGHT'S ULTIMATE DESTINATION"; the record named Palomar.