NYC06LA091 · Cessna 150M
Cessna 150M · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Dewitt Field - Old Town Municipal Airport (OLD) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC06LA091
- 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 150M
- 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
- N714EJ
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Dewitt Field - Old Town Municipal Airport (OLD), Old Town, METo not recorded
- 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 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
- Fuel system, line › Blocked(partial)
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane was in cruise flight at 1,500 feet when the engine lost power. As the pilot attempted to diagnose the problem, he noted that the fuel quantity indicator for the right tank showed one-quarter full, and the left tank indicator showed three-quarters full. The engine would not restart, but when the primer was pumped, the engine produced short bursts of power. The pilot used the short bursts of power to help the airplane reach the field selected as a forced landing area. The airplane touched down, then overran the field and struck trees. Examination of the maintenance records revealed a discrepancy logged 3 days before the accident that cited unbalanced fuel flow from the fuel tanks. Tests of the fuel lines with compressed air showed a free flow of air on the right side, and an initial blockage on the left, which was cleared by the compressed air. The source of the blockage was not recovered. The engine was placed in a test cell where it started immediately, accelerated smoothly, and ran continuously without interruption.
Probable cause
The partially blocked fuel line, which resulted in fuel starvation and a subsequent loss of engine power. Factors in the accident included inadequate maintenance, and the unsuitable terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC06LA091
- Event ID
- 20060422X00477
- Case number
- NYC06LA091
- 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: 567c8fcf2a9f15d925a3d16b0c97727fe5f32072b60fc41e02af39a06be3448e; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:48:11.836Z.