CHI90LA176 · Cessna 152
St Charles Flying Service Cessna 152 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From A1Z · BRUMLEY, MO to 3SZ · ST. CHARLES, MO
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI90LA176
- 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
- N6095M
- Operator
- ST. Charles Flying Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From A1Z · BRUMLEY, MOTo 3SZ · ST. CHARLES, MO
- 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
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Other institution › Inadequate initial training
- Pilot in command › Fuel consumption calculations, not performed
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
UPON ENCOUNTERING ADVERSE WEATHER DURING A SOLO CROSS COUNTRY FLIGHT THE STUDENT PILOT WAS UNABLE TO LAND AT HER PLANNED DESTINATION. AFTER A PERIOD OF TIME SHE LANDED AT AN AIRPORT. DURING HER RETURN FLIGHT TO THE HOME AIRPORT SHE ENCOUNTERED ADVERSE WEATHER. DURING HER SECOND DIVERSIONARY ACTION HER AIRPLANE'S ENGINE QUIT DUE TO FUEL EXHAUSTION. THE TOTAL FLYING TIME ASSOCIATED WITH THIS DAYS ACTIVITY WAS 3.0 HOURS. THE HOURLY RANGE FOR HER AIRPLANE, BASED ON THE PILOTS OPERATING HANDBOOK, IS APPROXIMATELY 4.2 HOURS. THE AIRPLANE IS PART OF A MANUFACTURER'S SERVICE LETTER WHICH EMPHASIZES THE NEED TO LEAN THE FUEL MIXTURE WHILE IN FLIGHT. THE STUDENT PILOT HAD NOT LEANED THE MIXTURE PROPERLY AND WAS NOT TRAINED TO DO SO. THE SUBSEQUENT FORCED LANDING ON A DOWNWARD SLOPING, TIERED PASTURE DESTROYED THE AIRPLANE.
Probable cause
FUEL EXHAUSTION DUE TO THE STUDENT PILOTS LACK OF FUEL USE AWARENESS AND INADEQUATE TRAINING REGARDING CROSS COUNTRY FUEL CONSUMPTION PLANNING AND AWARENESS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI90LA176
- Event ID
- 20001212X23641
- Case number
- CHI90LA176
- 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: 907b5d4473e3aa947778e631232aafd907221c0838d58d069e710e134214d524; retrieved 2026-09-23T05:33:45.611Z.