CEN10CA081 · Cessna 182P
Cessna 182P · Accident: fuel exhaustion en route
From Thompson Field (1TA7) to Altus, TX
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
- CEN10CA081
- 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 182P
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 182
- 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
- N21177
- Operator
- Moore Harold D
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Possible conflict
- From Thompson Field (1TA7), Canton, TXTo Altus, TX
- 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
- Defining eventThe 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
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
- Aircraft › Fluids/miscellaneous hardware
- Personnel issues › Psychological
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The private pilot topped off both fuel tanks (40 gallons each) prior to departing on a cross-country flight in his single-engine airplane. The pilot stated that he had difficulty securing the fuel cap on the right wing tank. About 2 hours into the flight, with the fuel selector on the left tank, the engine stopped producing power. The pilot noted that the left fuel gauge read empty and he attempted to switch tanks. He was unable to re-start the engine and made a forced landing to a deeply snow-covered field. Examination of the airplane revealed substantial damage to the wings, firewall, and fuselage. In addition, both wing fuel tanks were empty and the fuel cap on the right wing was missing.
Probable cause
A total loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion as a result of the pilot's failure to properly secure the right wing fuel cap and monitor the available fuel supply.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN10CA081
- Event ID
- 20091228X23502
- Case number
- CEN10CA081
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: 51a1ac0f8945fd331e69c0ff0d6dd47995c05f391bed55fbd8ea1adc78537906; retrieved 2026-09-15T13:35:32.200Z.