FTW83LA447 · Cessna 172M
Cessna 172M · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Addison Airport (ADS) to Bill & Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field (LIT)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW83LA447
- 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
- N9865Q
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Addison Airport (ADS), Addison, TXTo Bill & Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field (LIT), Little Rock, AR
- 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; 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 › Fuel supply, not maintained
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
BEFORE TAKEOFF, THE PLT VISUALLY CHECKED THE FUEL. HE BELIEVED THERE WAS SUFFICIENT FUEL ON BOARD FOR THE FLT & REPORTED THAT THE FUEL QUANTITY GAGES AGREED WITH HIS ESTIMATE. ACCORDING TO HIM, THERE WAS 25 TO 30 GAL OF FUEL ON BOARD WHEN HE TOOK OFF & NO MORE THAN 20 GAL SHOULD HAVE BEEN NEED. HOWEVER, BEFORE REACHING THE DESTINATION, THE ENG LOST POWER FROM FUEL EXHAUSTION. THE PLT TRIED TO LAND ON A ROAD AT DUSK, BUT THE ACFT CLIPPED THE TOPS OF TREES, THEN THE PLT MANEUVERED TO AVOID POWER LINES. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE ACFT WAS LANDED IN UNDERBRUSH BESIDE THE ROAD. THE PLT SUSPECTED EXCESSIVE FUEL CONSUMPTION, A FUEL LEAK OR FUEL SYPHONING. HOWEVER, NO MALFUNCTION OR LEAKAGE WAS VERIFIED. THE ENG WAS OPERATIONALLY CHECKED & RAN SMOOTHLY AT 900 RPM.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW83LA447
- Event ID
- 20001214X44555
- Case number
- FTW83LA447
- 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 1983-10-01.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 3c641b841d136eb9dae5c6a2f37ed8fdf0a794be5587ebc29cbd40571247cfcf; retrieved 2026-09-23T21:16:52.771Z.