ATL90LA113 · Cessna 305A
Cessna 305A · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From ATH · Athens, GA to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL90LA113
- 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 305A
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 305
- 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
- N201FM
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From ATH · Athens, GATo 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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)
- 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
- Fuel system › Contamination
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRCRAFT WAS ON FINAL APPROACH TO LAND WHEN THE ENGINE QUIT. THE PILOT ATTEMPTED A RESTART BUT WAS UNSUCCESSFUL. AFTER CLEARING SOME POWER LINES, THE AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH TREES ABOUT 900 FEET SHORT OF THE RUNWAY. EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE AFTER THE FLIGHT REVEALED THAT ALL TOP SPARK PLUGS WERE VERY CLEAN. THE NUMBER 6 CYLINDER WAS REMOVED AND INSPECTED. THE COMBUSTION CHAMBER, PISTON, AND EXHAUST WERE ALSO VERY CLEAN. SOME REMAINING CARBON ON THE PISTON HEAD WAS VERY LOOSE. THE GASCOLATOR BOWL WAS REMOVED AND WATER WAS OBSERVED INSIDE THE BOWL. THE ENGINE WAS TEST RUN UP TO 2000 RPM WITH NO PROBLEMS OBSERVED.
Probable cause
AN INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL90LA113
- Event ID
- 20001212X23071
- Case number
- ATL90LA113
- 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: 0f638d7e11e9b663eefb0e55c0bf3ca27ef471d725a1a5b046a9d5ea38232f01; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:53:46.989Z.