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NYC88LA222 · Cessna 152 II

19 Aug 1988 · Coatesville, PA, United States

Chester Co. Aviation Cessna 152 II · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route

From 40N · Chester, PA to 40N

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Event

NTSB case
NYC88LA222
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 II

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
N49142
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From 40N · Chester, PATo 40N
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
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 STUDENT PLT WAS RETURNING TO THE AIRPORT FOLLOWING A 1 HR LOCAL FLIGHT. HE STATED THAT THE ENGINE SPUTTERED AND LOST POWER. THE PLT SELECTED A FIELD FOR A FORCED LANDING AND APPROACHED IT FROM WEST TO EAST. THE PLANE STRUCK A ROAD SHORT OF THE FIELD AND THE NOSE GEAR WAS SHEARED OFF. THE AIRCRAFT SKIDDED INTO A CORN FIELD AND CAME TO REST, NOSE DOWN, FACING WEST. A POST ACCIDENT INSPECTION BY AN FAA INSPECTOR REVEALED THAT THE LEFT FUEL TANK WAS EMPTY, AND THE RIGHT TANK HAD 3/4 OF A GALLON IN IT. A FUEL SAMPLE SHOWED NO CONTAMINATION. THE PILOT SAID HE ESTIMATED THAT BOTH TANKS WERE HALF FULL WHEN HE TOOK OFF. IN HIS REPORT, THE PILOT REPORTED 3 GALLONS ON BOARD AT TAKEOFF.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record NYC88LA222
Event ID
20001213X26692
Case number
NYC88LA222
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: 7dfcb164a62b73a41fc4e001e6886fa1d0970c6b148b2be68feb9784ae2bad86; retrieved 2026-09-23T09:09:37.547Z.