ATL88FA069 · Cessna 172M
Cessna 172M · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From North Perry Airport (HWO) to 02J · Cordele, GA
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL88FA069
- 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 172M
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- 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
- N13609
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From North Perry Airport (HWO), Hollywood, FLTo 02J · Cordele, 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
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC); Fuel exhaustion; Tree(s)
- 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 › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, continued
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE NON-IFR RATED PLT DPTD IN VFR WX. HE SUBSEQUENTLY ENCOUNTERED IFR WX SEVERAL HRS AFTER DEPARTURE AND ATTEMPTED TO CONTINUE ON TO HIS DESTINATION ARPT IN IFR CONDITIONS. HE MADE SEVERAL VOR APPROACHES TO THE DESTINATION ARPT. BUT WAS UNABLE TO VISUALLY LOCATE THE ARPT AND LAND. HE SUBSEQUENTLY OBTAINED ATC ASSISTANCE AND RECEIVED VECTORS TO ROBINS AFB IN WARNER-ROBINS. THE ENGINE LOST POWER DURING THE APPROACH AND THE ACFT CRASHED INTO TREES ABOUT 8 NM FROM ROBINS AFB. THE PLT STATED THAT THE ENGINE LOST PWR DUE TO FUEL EXHAUSTION. SUBSEQUENT EXAMINATION OF THE ACFT CONFIRMED THIS. THE PLT NOTED THAT HE SHOULD HAVE TURNED AROUND WHEN HE FIRST ENCOUNTERED THE IFR WX.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL88FA069
- Event ID
- 20001213X32657
- Case number
- ATL88FA069
- 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: 3626e14b26588734f2b49b608f24d790c862306a0dd1b256e3b07f607d483bec; retrieved 2026-09-21T16:15:45.738Z.