NYC92LA045 · Cessna 152
Cessna 152 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From MPU · Montpelier, VT to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC92LA045
- 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
- N48156
- Operator
- David Santamore
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From MPU · Montpelier, VTTo 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
- 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; Tree(s)
- 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 › Became lost/disoriented
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Orford, NH, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE STUDENT PILOT INTENDED TO FLY FOR ABOUT 1 HOUR. AFTER PRACTICING STALLS AND TURNS HE DECIDED TO DO VOR TRACKING, WHEN HE GOT LOST AND DISORIENTED. THE PILOT ATTEMPTED TO LOCATE HIS POSITION BY GROUND REFERENCE AND THE USE OF SECTIONAL CHARTS. HE ALSO ATTEMPTED RADIO CONTACT WITH FSS, BUT WAS UNABLE TO MAKE CONTACT. AFTER CLIMBING TO 6000 FEET AND FLYING ABOUT 80 MILES SOUTHEAST OF HIS DEPARTURE AIRPORT HE WAS UNABLE TO MAKE CONTACT. AFTER CLIMBING TO 6000 FEET AND FLYING ABOUT 80 MILES SOUTHEAST OF HIS DEPARTURE AIRPORT HE IDENTIFIED HIS LOCATION. AT THAT POINT, HE ESTIMATED HE WAS 1 HOUR FROM HIS HOME AIRPORT AND HAD ABOUT ONE AND HALF HOURS OF FUEL REMAINING. DURING THE RETURN FLIGHT TO THE HOME AIRPORT AND ABOUT 3 HOURS AND 30 MINUTES AFTER THE FLIGHT BEGAN THE FUEL WAS EXHAUSTED. THE PILOT MADE A FORCED LANDING AND HIT TREES.
Probable cause
THE STUDENT PILOT BECAME LOST AND DISORIENTED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC92LA045
- Event ID
- 20001212X18659
- Case number
- NYC92LA045
- 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: 1563eceec396472aed1cd6e780c7c3671cb604aa4195af672ea185e83801bcd1; retrieved 2026-09-23T03:28:54.403Z.