NYC90LA078 · Beech C-23
Ronson Aviation Beech C-23 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From 18N · York, PA to Trenton Mercer Airport (TTN)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC90LA078
- 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
Beech C-23
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft C-23
- 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
- N6513Z
- Operator
- Ronson Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 18N · York, PATo Trenton Mercer Airport (TTN), Trenton, NJ
- 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 · IFR final approach
- 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 › Refueling, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT DEPARTED AT NIGHT WITH APPROXIMATELY 2 HOURS OF FUEL ON BOARD. HE PICKED UP A CLEARANCE ENROUTE, MADE A MISSED APPROACH DUE TO WEATHER, AND AFTER BEING AIRBORNE FOR 1 HR, 46 MIN, DECLARED A FUEL EMERGENCY. HE WAS VECTORED TO THE ILS AT A VFR AIRPORT, HOWEVER HE EXPERIENCED A POWER LOSS DUE TO FUEL EXHAUSTION APPROXIMATELY 20 MINUTES LATER AND MADE AN OFF AIRPORT LANDING IN A WOODED AREA, APPROXIMATELY 4 MILES FROM THE AIRPORT. POST CRASH EXAMINATION OF THE AIRPLANE SHOWED THE FUEL TANKS EMPTY AND NO EVIDENCE OF FUEL ON THE GROUND.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO ENSURE SUFFICIENT FUEL WAS ON BOARD FOR THE INTENDED FLIGHT, RESULTING IN A POWER LOSS DUE TO FUEL EXHAUSTION. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE UNSUITABLE TERRAIN, AND THE FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO DIVERT IN A TIMELY MANNER.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC90LA078
- Event ID
- 20001212X22807
- Case number
- NYC90LA078
- 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: 1d96dc18771d6e0ad805f8e722302b9854b6d93bc7be49f345d86fe39f5167b3; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:56:32.470Z.