NYC82DA173 · Cessna 150L
University of N.H. Flying Club Cessna 150L · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Rochester, NH to Jackman, ME
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC82DA173
- 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
- N11457
- Operator
- University of N.H. Flying Club
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Rochester, NHTo Jackman, ME
- 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 › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Fuel supply, misjudged
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Shapleigh, ME, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT DEPARTED ON A CROSS-COUNTRY FLIGHT FROM JACKMAN, ME TO ROCHESTER, NH AND RETURN. PRIOR TO TAKEOFF, THE FUEL TANKS WERE TOPPED OFF. DURING THE PREFLIGHT, THE LEFT FUEL GAUGE WAS FOUND TO BE "PINNED" AT THE FULL POSITION AND WAS INOPERATIVE. AFTER LANDING AT ROCHESTER, THE PILOT TOOK OFF ON THE RETURN FLIGHT WITHOUT REFUELING. AT THAT TIME, HE NOTED THAT THE OPERATING (RIGHT) FUEL GAUGE WAS INDICATING AT LEAST HALF FULL. WHILE EN ROUTE IN THE VICINITY OF SEBAGO LAKE, THE PILOT NOTICED THAT THE REMAINING GAUGE WAS QUICKLY BECOMING LOW. HE CHANGED COURSE TO LAND AT SANFORD, ME. BEFORE REACHING SANFORD, THE ENGINE LOST POWER FROM FUEL EXHAUSTION AFTER ABOUT 3.7 HRS OF FLIGHT TIME. THE PILOT ATTEMPTED TO LAND IN A SMALL FIELD WITH TREES AND WIRES AT THE NEAR END, BUT WAS UNABLE. HE THEN AIMED THE AIRCRAFT BETWEEN ROWS OF TREES. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE WINGS COLLIDED WITH TREE TRUNKS AT ABOUT 18 FT AGL. THE PILOT STATED HE FIGURED THE FUEL CONSUMPTION WOULD BE 4 TO 4.3 GAL/HR. THE ACTUAL CONSUMPTION WAS ABOUT 6 GAL/HR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC82DA173
- Event ID
- 20020917X03977
- Case number
- NYC82DA173
- 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: d576884b462c4ddac0d769f22ae999898ba2336f79b7bebe1c3905a5324d5f9a; retrieved 2026-09-22T03:00:42.580Z.