LAX99LA205 · Cessna 180
Cessna 180 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport (ICT) to Seychelles International Airport (SEZ)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX99LA205
- 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 180
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 180
- 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
- N9270C
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport (ICT), Wichita, KSTo Seychelles International Airport (SEZ)
- 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 downwind
- 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; Stall/mush
- 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 › Fuel consumption calculations, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Fuel supply, inadequate
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot and two passengers departed Wichita, Kansas, for a planned nonstop flight to Sedona, Arizona. The pilot was familiar with the route and had about 1,800 hours flying experience in the airplane, which had been modified to hold 73 gallons of fuel. While en route, all airplane systems functioned normally, and no adverse weather was encountered. Fuel exhaustion occurred upon arrival over the destination airport at 8,500 feet msl. The pilot repositioned the fuel selector to the left fuel tank, but engine power was not restored. The airport's elevation is 4,827 feet msl, and the runway is 5,132 feet long. The pilot descended into the airport's downwind leg, and then turned onto the base leg and final approach leg for runway 21. He reported experiencing a 15- to 20-knot wind from 270 degrees. Unable to glide to the runway, the pilot touched down hard in the dirt between 10 and 15 feet short of the runway, in a stalled attitude. The left main wheel contacted an 8- to 10-inch asphalt berm at the approach end of the runway. After the accident the pilot attempted to start the engine. He stated that the left fuel tank contained several gallons of fuel, and after several seconds of cranking the engine started and operated normally. He also reported that during the flight all of the airplane's systems had functioned normally. Under the direction of the Safety Board, an airframe and powerplant mechanic examined the airplane. The mechanic reported that both of the airplane's wing fuel tank gauges and the auxiliary tank gauge registered empty.
Probable cause
Fuel exhaustion due to an inadequate fuel supply, and the pilot's inadequate in-flight planning fuel consumption calculations.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX99LA205
- Event ID
- 20001212X18831
- Case number
- LAX99LA205
- 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: bb25272d201756bd3d4b1f0e633ce968420018fe96bb962c7e0f998ebb5fa32e; retrieved 2026-09-22T15:02:45.868Z.