FTW92LA019 · Cessna 150J
Cessna 150J · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Moriarty Municipal Airport (0E0) to Las Cruces International Airport (LRU)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW92LA019
- 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 150J
- 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
- N50472
- Operator
- Roy C. Cox · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Moriarty Municipal Airport (0E0), Moriarty, NMTo Las Cruces International Airport (LRU), Las Cruces, NM
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, poor
- Pilot in command › Refueling, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A PRIVATE PILOT AND HIS WIFE WENT ON A ROUND ROBIN CROSS COUNTRY FLIGHT. THE FIRST LEG OF THE TRIP WAS UNEVENTFUL. PRIOR TO DEPARTURE ON THE SECOND LEG, THE PILOT CHECKED THE FUEL QUANTITY BY DIPPING THE TANKS, AND CONFIRMED THAT HE HAD A TOTAL OF 20 GALLONS REMAINING FOR THE RETURN TRIP. WHILE ENROUTE, THE PILOT WAS FORCED TO CIRCUMNAVIGATE AROUND WEATHER TO REMAIN CLEAR OF CLOUDS. HIS SITUATION WAS FURTHER AGGRAVATED BY AN ESTIMATED 40 KNOT HEAD WIND. ENGINE POWER WAS LOST AND THE PILOT WAS ABLE TO RESTART THE ENGINE TWICE FOR ONLY A COUPLE OF SECONDS BOTH TIMES. A FORCED LANDING WAS MADE IN MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN, WITH BOTH OCCUPANTS ESCAPING UNHARMED. ONE FUEL CELL WAS TOTALLY EMPTY AND THE OTHER ONE HAD ABOUT A HALF CUP OF FUEL REMAINING.
Probable cause
FUEL EXHAUSTION AS A RESULT OF THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO REFUEL AND HIS POOR PREFLIGHT AND INFLIGHT PLANNING. FACTORS WERE THE UNSUITABLE MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN AT THE PILOT'S DISPOSAL AND THE UNFAVORABLE WINDS ALOFT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW92LA019
- Event ID
- 20001212X18307
- Case number
- FTW92LA019
- 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: 9e04a08d1c2d6c9079107807e2116f093f2a9b51c4934718fa85d7399b356779; retrieved 2026-09-23T03:34:31.916Z.