ATL82DA070 · Cessna 152
ST. Mary'S Aero Service Cessna 152 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Lancaster, PA to Leonardtown, MD
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL82DA070
- 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 152
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 152
- 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
- N159TC
- Operator
- ST. Mary'S Aero Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lancaster, PATo Leonardtown, MD
- 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
- 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 › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Instructions, written/verbal, not followed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE STUDENT WAS ON A CROSS-COUNTRY FLIGHT FROM LEONARDTOWN, MD TO CUMBERLAND, MD TO LANCASTER, PA AND THEN RETURN TO LEONARDTOWN. BEFORE TAKEOFF, THE STUDENT WAS INSTRUCTED TO REFUEL AT CUMBERLAND OR LANCASTER BEFORE CONTINUING. THE STUDENT STATED THAT HE HAD REQUESTED SERVICES AT LANCASTER, BUT HE RECEIVED NO FUEL. HE CHECKED THE FUEL GAUGES. REPORTEDLY, THE LEFT AND RIGHT GUAGES INDICATED 3/4 AND 3/8 FULL, RESPECTIVELY. THE STUDENT CHECKED THE FUEL TANKS AND BELIEVED THE FUEL GAUGES WERE APPROXIMATELY CORRECT. HOWEVER, WHILE ON THE LAST LEG OF THE CROSS-COUNTRY FLIGHT, THE ENGINE LOST POWER. DURING A FORCED LANDING, THE AIRCRAFT HIT A CONCRETE OBJECT AND OVERTURNED. THE 300 PLUS MILE FLIGHT WOULD HAVE TAKEN ABOUT 5 HOURS AND 50 MINUTES TO FLY. THIS WOULD HAVE REQUIRED ABOUT 28 GALLONS OF FUEL. THE USEFUL FUEL LOAD OF THE AIRCRAFT WAS 24.5 GALLONS. NO FUEL WAS PURCHASHED EN ROUTE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL82DA070
- Event ID
- 20020917X01680
- Case number
- ATL82DA070
- 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: e78ca86173af5eeb9496d16c29c9a92988632333fc41474d4c389d395c318670; retrieved 2026-09-22T03:09:47.200Z.