CHI04CA143 · Cessna 150F
Cessna 150F · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Sky Haven Airport (5N4) to RHN · Forest Lake, MN
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI04CA143
- 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 150F
- 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
- N6620F
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Possible conflict
- From Sky Haven Airport (5N4), Enderlin, NDTo RHN · Forest Lake, MN
- 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 · descent
- 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 › Fuel consumption calculations, inaccurate
- Pilot in command › Refueling, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot performed a forced landing in a lake following fuel exhaustion. The pilot departed Jamestown, North Dakota, at 1800 with full fuel tanks. He stated he climbed to an altitude of 9,500 feet, but that the airplane began "acting funny" around 7,000 feet so he decided to land in Enderlin, North Dakota, at 1930. While on the ground the pilot determined the engine problem was a result of him not leaning the engine at the higher altitudes and he departed at 1930 with an intended destination of New Richmond, Wisconsin. The pilot stated he planned the flight for 3 hours 15 minutes, and that he figured he had 4 hours of fuel left on board. The pilot reported that while en route he decided to land in Osceola, Wisconsin, because it was getting late. He stated he then became "a little apprehensive about the fuel" so he decided to land in Forest Lake, Minnesota. The pilot reported the engine "abruptly quit" during the descent. He stated he attempted to restart the engine to no avail. He stated there was a populated area between his position and the airport, so he turned to land on the lake to avoid injuring anyone on the ground. The pilot stated the next thing he remembers was exiting the airplane after it contacted the water. The pilot swam to shore and flagged down a police car that was responding to the report of an airplane in the lake. The pilot reported to the police officer that he had run out of fuel. On the NTSB Form 6120.1/2 that the pilot completed, he reported the accident could have been prevented "by fueling and/or not descending until over airport."
Probable cause
The pilot's inaccurate fuel consumption calculations which resultied in fuel exhaustion and loss of engine power. Factors associated with the accident were the dark light conditions and the water on which the forced landing was made.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI04CA143
- Event ID
- 20040617X00831
- Case number
- CHI04CA143
- 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: local date, investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2004-06-07.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 77a3f3ba62a0953b8079d93b3af69eb2b500075ed1da03350bd07c741e4b7b1a; retrieved 2026-09-22T07:22:27.926Z.