ATL07CA050 · Cessna 172K
Cessna 172K · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport (Lovell Field) (KCHA) to General Dewitt Spain Airport (M01)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL07CA050
- 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 172K
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- 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
- N46588
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport (Lovell Field) (KCHA), Chattanooga, TNTo General Dewitt Spain Airport (M01), Memphis, TN
- 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
- 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
- Pilot in command › Fuel management, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane nosed over during a forced landing following a total loss of power. The pilot stated he was in cruise flight at 3,000 feet heading north when the engine sputtered. The pilot switched the fuel tanks, turned the carburetor heat on, and turned towards the nearest airport. The pilot contacted the fixed base operator (FBO) at the airport on the UNICOM radio frequency and was informed the winds were favoring runway 20. On base leg to the runway, the airplane experienced a loss of engine power. The pilot realized he could not make the runway, and made a hard left turn towards a cornfield. The nose landing gear collided with a berm/furrow in the corn field, the airplane bounced, and nosed over inverted. Two lineman located at the airport observed the accident. One lineman called the 911 emergency operator to report the accident, and the other lineman went to the accident site to assist. The lineman and a deputy sheriff arrived at the crash site. The deputy sheriff took a statement from the pilot. The lineman heard the pilot inform the deputy sheriff that he ran the airplane out of fuel and came up short on the landing while attempting to reach the airport. Examination of the airplane by the FAA revealed no smell of fuel or leakage of fuel was present at the crash site. The airplane was turned over by recovery personnel. The left and right fuel caps were removed and were found to have a tight seal. The left and right fuel tanks were not ruptured and no fuel was present. About one half ounce of fuel was drained from the left and right fuel tank drains. The airplane was recovered to the airport and secured for an engine run. Five gallons of fuel was added to the left main fuel tank. The engine was started, it ran, and was shut down.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper fuel management resulting in a total loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL07CA050
- Event ID
- 20070522X00607
- Case number
- ATL07CA050
- 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: 656833a7a8feaca556f203eaf02b7d29754152eeb40f179cb9905bf82d750d22; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:34:10.744Z.