FTW87LA005 · Cessna 150J
Cessna 150J · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From 5R3 · Lago Vista, TX to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW87LA005
- 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 150J
- 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
- N5552G
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 5R3 · Lago Vista, TXTo 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 (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; 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
- Fuel supply › Inadequate
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE INSTRUCTOR (CFI) & STUDENT HAD PLANNED A 30 MIN FLT TO PRACTICE TOUCH-&-GO LANDINGS. DURING THE INITIAL CLIMB AFTER THE 3RD TOUCH-&-GO, THE ENG LOST POWER FROM FUEL EXHAUSTION. THE CFI STATED THAT HE MEASURED THE FUEL SUPPLY WITH A RULER DRG THE PREFLT & CALCULATED THAT 6.5 GAL OR ENOUGH FOR APRX 1 HR OF FLT WAS REMAINING. HOWEVER, THE ENG QUITE AFTER ABOUT 1/2 HR OF OPERATION. THE TOTAL FUEL SUPPLY OF THE ACFT WAS 26 GAL, OF WHICH, 3.5 GAL WAS CONSIDERED AS UNUSABLE. DRG AN EXAM AFTER THE ACDNT, ONLY ABOUT 2 GAL OF FUEL WAS FOUND REMAINING. NO EVIDENCE OF A LEAK WAS FOUND IN THE FUEL SYSTEM.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW87LA005
- Event ID
- 20001213X34962
- Case number
- FTW87LA005
- 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 1986-10-16.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 0468eeeab143e968745c0b8b6817c5ecfcee393f883c60956b18880083e7d388; retrieved 2026-09-22T01:11:07.290Z.