MIA92GA002 · Cessna 172K
Civil Air Patrol Cessna 172K · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
From Marco Island Executive Airport (MKY) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA92GA002
- 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
- 2 · 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
- Government
- 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 172K
- 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
- N758JN
- Operator
- Civil Air Patrol
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Marco Island Executive Airport (MKY), Marco Island, FLTo 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
- Public Aircraft
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
- Pilot in command › Fuel consumption calculations, inadvertent
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, poor
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Everglades City, FL, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE CIVIL AIR PATROL PRIVATE PILOT AND AERIAL OBSERVER DEPARTED ON A PUBLIC USE FLIGHT IN VFR CONDITIONS. THE FLIGHT WAS DIVERTED BY CAP GROUND PERSONNEL TO ASSIST IN LOCATING A BOAT IN DISTRESS. THE CAP PILOT LOCATED THE BOAT AND REMAINED OVERHEAD, WHILE CAP GROUND PERSONNEL NOTIFIED THE US COAST GUARD. USCG AIRCRAFT WERE DISPATCHED TO THE SCENE AND ESTABLISHED RADIO CONTACT WITH THE CAP AIRCRAFT. THE CAP PILOT INFORMED THE USCG THAT FUEL WAS CRITICAL EN ROUTE TO MARCO. NO FURTHER RADIO CONTACT WAS ESTABLISHED. THE DESTROYED AIRPLANE WAS LOCATED 15 DAYS LATER. BOTH CREWMEMBERS WERE KILLED. EXAMINATION OF THE AIRFRAME, FLIGHT CONTROL SYSTEM, PROPELLER SYSTEM, ENGINE AND ACCESSORIES REVEALED NO EVIDENCE TO INDICATED A PRECRASH FAILURE OF MALFUNCTION. NEITHER FUEL TANK WAS RUPTURED AND NO FUEL WAS PRESENT.
Probable cause
THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND'S IMPROPER MANAGEMENT OF FUEL. THIS RESULTED IN THE AIRPLANE EXPERIENCING FUEL EXHAUSTION, FORCED LANDING, AND IN FLIGHT COLLISION WITH TERRAIN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA92GA002
- Event ID
- 20001212X18343
- Case number
- MIA92GA002
- 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 1991-10-03.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 7c842d177e38949e1bf93c581c00ed2a8f97c8b436969c93396349b9890f83a9; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:38:34.810Z.