MKC87LA109 · Cessna 152
ST. Louis University Cessna 152 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From K39 · ST. CLAIR, MO to St Louis Downtown Airport (CPS)
Event
- NTSB case
- MKC87LA109
- 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
- N6136Q
- Operator
- ST. Louis University
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From K39 · ST. CLAIR, MOTo St Louis Downtown Airport (CPS), Cahokia, IL
- 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)
- 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, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT STATED THAT HE DEPARTED ST. LOUIS DOWNTOWN-PARKS AIRPORT (CPS) ON A ROUND-ROBIN FLIGHT WITH PLANNED STOPS AT ST. CLAIR MEMORIAL AIRPORT (K39), MISSOURI, AND RICHLAND MUNICIPAL AIRPORT (M034), MISSOURI. THE RETURN FLIGHT TO CPS INCLUDED ANOTHER STOP AT K39. NO REFUELING WAS PERFORMED ENROUTE, ACCORDING TO THE PILOT AND THE FAA. THE ENGINE BEGAN RUNNING ROUGH AFTER 3 HOURS AND 55 MINUTES OF FLIGHT TIME, AND SUBSEQUENTLY LOST POWER, FORCING THE PILOT TO ATTEMPT AN OFF-AIRPORT LANDING. THE AIRCRAFT NOSED OVER WHEN THE NOSE GEAR COLLAPSED DURING IMPACT. A POST-ACCIDENT INSPECTION OF THE AIRCRAFT FAILED TO FIND ANY SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF FUEL IN THE TANKS AND THERE WERE NO PRE-EXISTING DISCREPANCIES FOUND IN THE POWERPLANT TO SUGGEST AN ENGINE FAILURE. THE AIRCRAFT CAME TO REST 3 MILES SHORT OF A SUITABLE AERODROME.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MKC87LA109
- Event ID
- 20001213X31008
- Case number
- MKC87LA109
- 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: dd3a2a65e5466fffe5237f98d5344ee52a387683cbf426818e4f75c61cb2e528; retrieved 2026-09-23T13:08:34.005Z.