MIA03CA095 · Cessna 152
Cessna 152 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Olive Branch Airport (KOLV) to Olive Branch Airport (KOLV)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA03CA095
- 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 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
- N757AZ
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Olive Branch Airport (KOLV), Olive Branch, MSTo Olive Branch Airport (KOLV)
- 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 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
- 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 starvation
- 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(cfi) › Fuel tank selector position, improper use of
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The CFI reported that after takeoff, the flight proceeded to the practice area where the student pilot performed airwork maneuvers. The flight returned to the departure airport for a planned full-stop landing, entering the traffic pattern for runway 18 on the downwind leg. When the flight was abeam the numbers for runway 18, the CFI positioned the fuel selector to the "off" position to simulate an engine failure as had been done to him as a student. The engine lost power about 5 seconds later after turning onto the base leg. The student pilot recognized the loss of engine power and went through the emergency procedures, to include moving the fuel selector to the "on" position. The engine continued to lose rpm and eventually quit after the fuel selector was positioned to the "on." The CFI confirmed the fuel selector was fully in the on position, took control of the airplane on the base leg, pitched to achieve best glide airspeed, and turned towards the runway. An emergency was declared on the UNICOM frequency and the CFI attempted to restart the engine while flying the airplane; engine restart was unsuccessful. The student helped secure the cockpit and the CFI recognized the airplane could not reach the runway. The airplane was landed on grass short of the runway with the main landing gear first, and he attempted to hold the nose landing gear off the ground. The nose landing gear collapsed after contacting uneven terrain; the CFI and student evacuated the airplane after it came to rest. The CFI further reported there was no mechanical malfunction or failure. Following recovery of the airplane, the engine was started and operated only to idle rpm; impact damage precluded operation at a higher rpm.
Probable cause
The CFI's improper positioning of the fuel selector valve to the off position which resulted in fuel starvation and the subsequent loss of engine power.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA03CA095
- Event ID
- 20030416X00514
- Case number
- MIA03CA095
- 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: 43a4700a3a9ea3f7f84049feab43b5876b2c9007cc5b8801874e4feade6cedf5; retrieved 2026-09-22T09:24:31.881Z.