MIA00LA031 · Cessna 175-235
Cessna 175-235 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Freeway Airport (W00) to Goose Creek Airport (28A)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA00LA031
- 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 175-235
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 175
- 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
- N7145M
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Freeway Airport (W00), Mitchellville, MDTo Goose Creek Airport (28A), GOOSE CREEK, NC
- 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 go-around
- 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
- Pilot in command › Fuel consumption calculations, improper
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Following about 2.5 hours of banner towing in the Washington, DC/Baltimore area, the flight landed at Mitchellville, Maryland, and pumped 21 to 22 gallons of fuel aboard for the return to their home base of Goose Creek Airport, Mint Hill, North Carolina. The landing approach to Goose Creek appeared high, and the PIC decided to go around for a second attempt. As power was being added for the go around, the engine quit and the PIC gave the controls to the SIC/safety pilot, who conducted a forced landing to a vacant field. A total of 5 to 10 gallons was found in the wreckage, and the type certificate data sheets state that 9 gallons is unusable. The engine operated satisfactorily during a factory test cell run.
Probable cause
The PIC's improper preflight fuel planning and preparation and the PIC's improper en route fuel consumption calculations resulting in a total loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion and damage to the aircraft during the subsequent forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA00LA031
- Event ID
- 20001212X20143
- Case number
- MIA00LA031
- 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 1999-11-29.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 01f8c118f6b443e6e60f44240283c4df99779c75f332a16c1ae38bdb7ea2648b; retrieved 2026-09-22T13:36:42.261Z.