FTW89LA102 · Cessna 150L
Cessna 150L · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Conroe-North Houston Regional Airport (CXO) to Conroe-North Houston Regional Airport (CXO)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW89LA102
- 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 150L
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 150
- 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
- N17130
- Operator
- Huddleston, Ronnie L. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Conroe-North Houston Regional Airport (CXO), Conroe, TXTo Conroe-North Houston Regional Airport (CXO), Conroe, TX
- 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)
- 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
- Pilot in command › Fuel consumption calculations, improper
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
PRIOR TO THE FLIGHT, THE STUDENT PILOT AND HIS INSTRUCTOR DISCUSSED THE FACT THAT THE AIRPLANE WAS NOT FULL OF FUEL. THE STUDENT SAID IT WAS HIS UNDERSTANDING THAT HE WOULD HAVE SUFFICIENT FUEL FOR THE SOLO CROSS-COUNTRY FLIGHT IF THE FLIGHT WENT ACCORDING TO THE FLIGHT PLAN. THE STUDENT PILOT DID NOT INDICATE THERE WERE ANY PROBLEMS WITH THE FLIGHT UNTIL HE NOTICED THE FUEL GAGES WERE ON EMPTY. THE STUDENT PILOT SAID HE HAD FLOWN TO THE TURNAROUND AIRPORT, MADE A TOUCH-AND-CO LANDING, AND WAS ENROUTE HOME WHEN HE NOTICED THE FUEL GAGES WERE ON ZERO. HE HEADED FOR A NEARBY AIRPORT BUT THE ENGINE STOPPED BEFORE HE MADE IT THERE. DURING THE LANDING ROLL OF THE FORCED LANDING, THE AIRPLANE HIT A TREE STUMP AND WENT FORWARD TO THE INVERTED POSITION.
Probable cause
FUEL SYSTEM EXHAUSTION DUE TO THE IMPROPER PLANNING/DECISION BY THE FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR, ON THE GROUND, PRIOR TO THE FLIGHT AND THE IMPROPER INFLIGHT PLANNING/DECISION BY THE STUDENT PILOT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW89LA102
- Event ID
- 20001213X28326
- Case number
- FTW89LA102
- 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: 52fa7a3b5e83ba4d4ec554ce051fb14663a7033223a638dcde48471b99a06791; retrieved 2026-09-23T07:34:02.111Z.