FTW92LA006 · Cessna 152
Abilene Aero Cessna 152 · Accident: loss of engine power on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW92LA006
- 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
- N5399B
- Operator
- Abilene Aero
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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 · VFR pattern final
- 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
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › Refueling, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING PREFLIGHT, THE STUDENT PILOT DISCOVERED WATER IN THE FUEL SAMPLES. HE THEN RECRUITED THE CHIEF FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR, WHO ASSISTED HIM IN SUMPING THE TANKS UNTIL A SATISFACTORY SAMPLE WAS OBTAINED. THE STUDENT PILOT WAS THEN ADVISED BY THE CHIEF FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR TO VERIFY THE FUEL QUANTITY OF THE AIRPLANE BECAUSE THE FUEL GAUGE WAS INACCURATE. THE STUDENT PILOT STATED THAT FUEL WAS OBSERVED UP TO THE FILLER NECK OF THE TANK; THEREFORE, HE DID NOT REFUEL THE AIRPLANE. ON FINAL TO THE AIRPORT, A TOTAL LOSS OF POWER WAS EXPERIENCED DUE TO FUEL EXHAUSTION. A TOTAL OF 1.25 GALLONS WAS RECOVERED FROM THE AIRPLANE SUBSEQUENT TO THE ACCIDENT. THE FLIGHT DEPARTED AT APPROXIMATELY 1500 CENTRAL DAYLIGHT TIME.
Probable cause
FUEL EXHAUSTION AS A RESULT OF THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO REFUEL THE AIRPLANE PRIOR TO THE FLIGHT. A FACTOR WAS THE FBO'S FAILURE TO PROPERLY MAINTAIN THE FUEL QUANTITY GAUGES.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW92LA006
- Event ID
- 20001212X18300
- Case number
- FTW92LA006
- 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: 363039feb4bcee0d4fc54f557eeba6426a0d0c5fdbe038f8aba2ef2cd8da34c1; retrieved 2026-09-23T03:37:30.404Z.