FTW02LA257 · Smith Aerostar 601P
Smith Aerostar 601P · Accident: loss of engine power on approach
From Cambridge Municipal Airport (CDI) to Sundance Airpark (HSD)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW02LA257
- 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
Smith Aerostar 601P
- Aircraft type
- Smith AEROSTAR 601
- 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
- N90652
- Operator
- Richard A. Fisher · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Cambridge Municipal Airport (CDI), Cambridge, OHTo Sundance Airpark (HSD), Oklahoma City, OK
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- Fuel system, pump › Leak
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to the pilot, both wing fuel tanks and the fuselage fuel tank were topped prior to departure. The airplane departed and was cleared direct for an 807 nautical mile flight. The flight was as expected, with no significant course deviations or unexpected changes in weather conditions, including winds aloft. The pilot reported that he approached the airport and set up for a visual approach to land. The airplane was at 700 feet agl, turning from the downwind leg to base leg, when both engines lost power. During the ensuing forced landing to a field the airplane collided with a fence and came to rest upright. Postaccident examination revealed that the left and right wing fuel tanks did not contain any fuel and the fuselage tank contained a "small" amount of fuel. The left fuel boost pump, which was located at the lower left side of the fuselage fuel tank, exhibited a fuel leak. The fuel leak was observed at the fuel pump to bladder tank flange. Fuel stains were found on fuel lines in the flange area and around the aft fuselage area.
Probable cause
A fuel leak at the left boost pump to bladder tank flange, which resulted in fuel exhaustion and the subsequent loss of power to both engines.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW02LA257
- Event ID
- 20020919X05177
- Case number
- FTW02LA257
- 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: 10f2d257e7bf096037a6e1eed5b48ccacf4b57fcec317e6765c76e3eb06175c7; retrieved 2026-09-22T10:15:20.148Z.