BFO91LA071 · Cessna 172G
Cessna 172G · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From N04 · Madison, CT to Fredericksburg, VA
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO91LA071
- 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 172G
- 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
- N6002R
- Operator
- James M. Curry · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From N04 · Madison, CTTo Fredericksburg, VA
- 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
- 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 starvation
- 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 › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Fuel tank selector position, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
BEFORE DEPARTING ON A FLIGHT FROM MADISON, CONNECTICUT TO FREDERICKSBURG, VIRGINIA, THE PILOT VISUALLY INSPECED THE FUEL TANKS. HE STATED THAT THE RIGHT TANK WAS FULL WHILE THE LEFT TANK WAS TWO TO THREE GALLONS SHORT OF BEING FULL. HE DEPARTED AT ABOUT 1421 EDT WITH THE FUEL SELECTOR ON THE BOTH POSITION. DURING THE FLIGHT HE ALTERNATED BETWEEN THE LEFT AND RIGHT TANK. HE STATED THAT HE SELECTED THE LEFT TANK FOR APPROXIMATELY 93 MINUTES AND THE RIGHT TANK FOR 74 MINUTES. AS HE CONTINUED HIS DESCENT TO HIS DESTINATION, HE KEPT THE SELECTOR ON THE LEFT TANK. DURING THE DESCENT THE ENGINE LOST POWER AND HE MADE A FORCED LANDING IN A FIELD, EXAMINATION OF THE AIRCRAFT REVEALED THERE WAS SIX TO EIGHT GALLONS REMAINING IN THE RIGHT TANK. THE PILOT STATED THAT THE ACCIDENT COULD HAVE BEEN PREVENTED IF HE HAD USED THE EMERGENCY CHECK LIST.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S SELECTION OF THE IMPROPER FUEL TANK. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE PILOT DID NOT USE THE CHECK LIST.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO91LA071
- Event ID
- 20001212X17782
- Case number
- BFO91LA071
- 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: 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: db3a2d989f19c0cd1ea2fc8a7a40c4c38c5f1eb9ef6605b7f75410c9e3b782db; retrieved 2026-09-23T03:51:39.517Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: destination. The narrative states the pilot was "DEPARTING ON A FLIGHT FROM MADISON, CONNECTICUT TO FREDERICKSBURG, VIRGINIA" and lost power during the descent to his destination; the destination was not recorded.