ATL90LA044 · Piper PA-24
Piper PA-24 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Coldwater, MI to Athens, GA
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL90LA044
- 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
Piper PA-24
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-24
- 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
- N5556P
- Operator
- Morris J. Hansen · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Coldwater, MITo Athens, GA
- 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
- 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 › Fuel supply, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT STATED THAT DRG FLT, HE NOTED A SLIGHT ODOR OF FUEL & OPENED THE VENTS TO ALLOW FRESH AIR IN THE CABIN. AS HE WAS ARRIVING TO LAND AT THE DESTN ARPT, THE ENG LOST POWER AT ABOUT 2200' AGL. HE SELECTED AN EMERG LANDING AREA. AFTER ASSURING CLNC OVER TREES, HE TRIED TO EXTD THE LNDG GEAR WITH THE NORMAL (ELEC) EXTN SYS, BUT WAS UNABLE. HE STARTED TO USE THE EMERG GEAR EXTN SYS, BUT THERE WAS INSUFFICIENT TIME, SO HE MADE A WHEELS UP LNDG. NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION OF THE ACFT OR ENG WAS FOUND. ACCORDING TO THE PLT, HIS INSTRUMENTS SHOWED FUEL WAS STILL REMAINING WHEN THE ENG LOST POWER; HOWEVER, NO USABLE FUEL WAS FOUND IN THE ACFT AFTER THE ACDNT. THE PLT STATED THAT THE ACFT WAS 'TOPPED OFF' WITH FUEL BEFORE THE FLT & HE ESTIMATED 11.7 GAL OF FUEL OR MORE WOULD BE REMAINING WHEN HE ARRIVED AT THE DESTN. THE ACFT'S FUEL CAPACITY WAS 60 GAL WITH THE TANKS FILLED TO THE TOP OF THE FILLER NECKS. RPRTDLY, THE FUEL SYS WOULD HAVE HAD ABOUT 10 GAL LESS THAN A FULL LOAD, IF THE TANKS HAD BEEN FILLED TO THE BOTTOM OF THE FILLER NECKS.
Probable cause
INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT PREPARATION/PLANNING BY THE PILOT, BY NOT ASSURING AN ADEQUATE SUPPLY OF FUEL, WHICH RESULTED IN FUEL EXHAUSTION. RELATED FACTORS WERE: A FALSE FUEL QUANTITY INDICATION, TREES IN THE EMERGENCY LANDING AREA, AND FAILURE OF THE LANDING GEAR TO EXTEND (FOR AN UNKNOWN REASON).
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL90LA044
- Event ID
- 20001213X29912
- Case number
- ATL90LA044
- 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: d270fb1a1496ad14468d9eb6d3e5eeead756f7f4baab69427f8a85c774b7f037; retrieved 2026-09-23T06:54:50.021Z.