NYC87LA086 · Cessna 152
Cessna 152 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From Old Bridge Airport (3N6) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC87LA086
- 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
- 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
- N25498
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Old Bridge Airport (3N6), Old Bridge, NJTo 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
- 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 (mechanical failure)
- 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 contamination
- 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
- Airport personnel › Maintenance, service of aircraft/equipment, improper
- Fluid, fuel › Water
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Old Bridge, NJ, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE CESSNA 152 TOOK OFF AND AFTER BECOMING AIRBORNE, EXPERIENCED A TOTAL LOSS OF POWER. THE STUDENT PILOT WHO HAD MADE THE TAKEOFF TURNED CONTROL OF THE AIRCRAFT OVER TO THE FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR, WHO MADE AN EMERGENCY LANDING IN A DRAG STRIP PARKING LOT WHICH WAS COVERED WITH SNOW AND ICE. THE AIRCRAFT SKIDDED INTO A CHAIN LINK FENCE. THE STUDENT PILOT RECEIVED MINOR INJURIES WHILE THE FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR WAS NOT INJURED. THE AIRCRAFT RECEIVED SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGE. THE MAIN FUEL STRAINER WAS DRAINED AND IT WAS NOTED THE FUEL WAS APPROXIMATELY 50% WATER. THE FUEL IN THE UNDERGROUND TANK THAT WAS USED TO FUEL THE AIRCRAFT WAS CHECKED AND IT WAS NOTED THAT THE FUEL OUT OF THE PUMPS WAS APPROXIMATELY 10% WATER. IN ADDITION THE FUEL FILTERS WERE DIRTY AND CONTAINED ICE CRYSTALS. THE SOURCE OF THE WATER INTO THE UNDERGROUND FUEL TANKS WAS NOT DETERMINED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC87LA086
- Event ID
- 20001213X30323
- Case number
- NYC87LA086
- 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: e5b19466aa091e3510a88977c92f177a29907c619529dfc9fcfe8c03da042145; retrieved 2026-09-22T01:04:56.057Z.