DEN89LA180 · Cessna 150G
Cessna 150G · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From U42 to U42
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN89LA180
- 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 150G
- 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
- N2473J
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From U42To U42
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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 › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Fuel supply, misjudged
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PVT PLT & HIS SON WERE PRACTICING TAKEOFFS & LANDINGS ON RWY 16 AT DUSK. THE WINDS WERE ESTIMATED TO BE FM 160 DEG AT 5 KTS. THE PLT SAID HE TOOK OFF, & WHILE TURNING X-WIND, THE ENG STOPPED RUNNING. HE ROCKED THE WINGS IN AN ATTEMPT TO RESTORE FUEL TO THE ENG, BUT TO NO AVAIL. HE TURNED THE PLANE BACK TOWARD THE ARPT & LANDED ON TERRAIN EAST OF THE RWY. THE LANDING GEAR STRUCK AN IRRIGATION DITCH & WAS DAMAGED AS THE PLANE SKIDDED TO A HALT ON THE SOUTHEAST EDGE OF RWY 16. A POST-ACDNT EXAM REVEALED NO FUEL WAS REMAINING IN THE GASCOLATOR & LESS THAN 1 QT OF FUEL WAS IN THE TANKS. AFTER THE TANKS WERE DRAINED, THE FUEL GAGES INDCD THAT THE LEFT TANK WAS EMPTY & THAT THE RIGHT TANK WAS 1/4 FULL.
Probable cause
INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT BY THE PILOT, WHICH RESULTED IN FUEL EXHAUSTION, DUE TO HIS MISJUDGEMENT OF THE FUEL SUPPLY. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: A FALSE FUEL GAGE INDICATION, AND THE DITCH IN THE EMERGENCY LANDING AREA.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN89LA180
- Event ID
- 20001213X28817
- Case number
- DEN89LA180
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1989-07-28.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 7732dda08532b00a6b1a677763c2d36e2256b318756a1f9d448837ae8cba97e5; retrieved 2026-09-23T07:21:22.165Z.