ATL89LA140 · Cessna A185F
Cessna A185F · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From SQR · Sarasota, FL to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL89LA140
- 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 A185F
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 185
- 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
- CGCMT
- Operator
- James E. Woodcock · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From SQR · Sarasota, FLTo 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 base
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Fuel supply, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Remedial action, delayed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT/OWNER OF THE ACFT INDICATED THAT HE HAD THE ACFT REFUELED PRIOR TO DEPARTURE FROM SARASOTA. HE QUESTIONED THE LINE PERSON, WHO DID THE REFUELING, BUT DID NOT VISUALLY CHECK THE QUANTITY PRIOR TO DEPARTURE. THE PILOT STATED THAT HE WAS AWARE THAT THE FUEL QUANTITY GAUGES WERE INACCURATE, SO HE ALWAYS FLEW BY ELAPSED TIME. APPROACHING CHARLOTTE, NC FROM THE SOUTH, HE CONTACTED APPROACH CONTROL AND INDICATED THAT HE WOULD LAND AT ROCK HILL, SC. AFTER SOME APPARENT CONSIDERATION, HE CHANGED HIS DESTINATION TO CHARLOTTE, WHICH WAS ONLY ABOUT 14 MI AWAY. HE WAS BEING RADAR VECTORED FOR A LANDING ON RUNWAY 18L AT CHARLOTTE, WHEN THE ENGINE LOST POWER. THE PILOT RADIOED THAT HE HAD RUN OUT OF FUEL AND WAS LOOKING FOR A PLACE TO LAND. THE AIRPLANE TOUCHED DOWN ON A SMALL LAKE, BECAME AIRBORNE AND COLLIDED WITH TREES AT THE EDGE OF THE LAKE. NO EVIDENCE OF FUEL WAS FOUND AT THE SITE.
Probable cause
COMPLETE LOSS OF ENGINE POWER DUE TO FUEL EXHAUSTION. THE FUEL EXHAUSTION WAS DUE TO THE PILOT NOT ASSURING AN ADEQUATE FUEL SUPPLY FOR THE FLIGHT BY VISUAL INSPECTION DURING HIS PREFLIGHT INSPECTION. CONTRIBUTING WAS THE PILOT'S DECISION TO CONTINUE FLIGHT WITH A KNOWN INACCURACY IN THE FUEL QUANTITY INDICATING SYSTEM.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL89LA140
- Event ID
- 20001213X28238
- Case number
- ATL89LA140
- 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: 42a177904d74dfec450b109c0b76d5e594f8c0e0e7242ea08a85d253f3319fb7; retrieved 2026-09-22T00:14:06.374Z.