NYC02LA074 · Cessna 182C
Cessna 182C · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Smith Mountain Lake Airport (W91) to W91
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC02LA074
- 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
- Unknown
- 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 182C
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 182
- 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
- N8667T
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Smith Mountain Lake Airport (W91), Moneta, VATo W91
- 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
- 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
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
After releasing parachutists, the pilot planned to return to the airport. During the descent, about 2,500 feet msl, the engine began to lose power. The pilot thought that carburetor ice caused the power loss, and performed emergency procedures, which included the application of carburetor heat. The engine did not regain power, and the pilot planned an emergency landing to a field. As the pilot began to flare, the engine power returned, and he performed a go-around. During the go-around, about 50 feet agl, the engine began to lose power again. The pilot then attempted to land in a smaller field with an up-sloping incline. During the landing, the nose gear collapsed, and the airplane came to rest. The pilot stated that he departed with 12 gallons of fuel, and did not experience any pre-impact mechanical malfunctions with the airplane. However, the pilot told a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspector that he either experienced carburetor ice or ran out of fuel. The FAA inspector did not find any fuel in the left fuel tank, and found less than 1 gallon of fuel in the right fuel tank. He did not find any fuel in the fuel line to the carburetor, nor the gascolator.
Probable cause
The pilot's inadequate preflight planning, which resulted in fuel exhaustion.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC02LA074
- Event ID
- 20020329X00421
- Case number
- NYC02LA074
- 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, coordinates. 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: 0825923bbc815c59f0042fb39126a5f560b4e36b932001539798fd170fa4ec67; retrieved 2026-09-22T11:03:39.523Z.