LAX87LA049 · Cessna 150L
Cessna 150L · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Los Banos Municipal Airport (LSN) to Fresno Yosemite International Airport (FAT)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's location. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX87LA049
- 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 150L
- 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
- N11185
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Los Banos Municipal Airport (LSN), Los Banos, CATo Fresno Yosemite International Airport (FAT), Fresno, CA
- 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 · VFR pattern turn to base
- 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; Utility pole
- 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
- Object › Utility pole
- Pilot in command › Fuel consumption calculations, improper
- Pilot in command › Fuel supply, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING A SOLO INSTRUCTIONAL CROSS-COUNTRY FLIGHT THE ENGINE QUIT WHILE ON THE BASE LEG AT THE FRESNO AIRPORT. THE PILOT DID NOT FEEL THAT HE COULD MAKE THE RUNWAY DUE TO AN EXTENDED DOWNWIND AND LOW ALTITUDE. THE PILOT DECIDED TO TRY AND LAND IN A PLOWED FIELD TO HIS RIGHT THEN DECIDED NOT TO BECAUSE OF A FENCE. THE PILOT THEN CHOSE A NEARBY ROAD. THE AIRCRAFT THEN COLLIDED WITH A TELEPHONE POLE. THE AIRCRAFT WAS EXAMINED AND FOUND THAT THE RIGHT FUEL TANK WAS EMPTY AND THE LEFT FUEL TANK HAD APPROXIMATELY 1 GALLON OF FUEL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX87LA049
- Event ID
- 20001213X35201
- Case number
- LAX87LA049
- 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: 34507f5de0dd2f3137b585eb17f82f0c5ce7f37750f7bd4ce3442643cabab744; retrieved 2026-09-22T01:08:28.732Z.