GAA20CA089 · Cessna 172 S
Hobart Aviation Cessna 172 S · Accident: loss of engine power (total) during landing
From Akron Fulton International Airport (AKR) to Akron Fulton International Airport (AKR)
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
- GAA20CA089
- 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 172 S
- 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
- N683SP
- Operator
- Hobart Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Possible conflict
- From Akron Fulton International Airport (AKR), Akron, OHTo Akron Fulton International Airport (AKR), Akron, OH
- Aircraft age
- About 20 years (built 1999)
- 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
- Landing · aborted after touchdown
- 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
- Loss of engine power (total)
- 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 oper/perf/capability
- Aircraft › Fluids/miscellaneous hardware
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that the airplane was refueled while he performed the preflight inspection at night. He recalled that the fuel selector had been set to "both," and about halfway through the flight, he noticed that the right fuel tank appeared full but that the left fuel gauge indicated that fuel was being consumed from the left tank. He decided that he would "check the situation " when he reached his destination. About 5 miles from his destination, he noticed that the left-wing tank fuel quantity indicator showed that the left tank had 5 gallons remaining and that the right tank was still full. The pilot stated that, during the approach, the airplane became "very unstable and seemed to be uncoordinated." The stall warning horn sounded, and he applied left aileron and left rudder to align the airplane's heading with the runway heading but was unsuccessful.
He aborted the landing, established a climb, and retracted the flaps. The Low Fuel warning light illuminated, and he switched the fuel selector to the right tank. The engine lost power, and he made a right tear drop turn back to the runway. When the airplane was about 1,000 ft above ground level, he pitched for best glide airspeed, about 70 knots, and he attempted to restart the engine to no avail. He lowered the nose, the airspeed increased to 85 knots, and he added 20° of flaps and landed on the runway. The airplane bounced hard and then came to a stop. After the accident, it was determined that the right fuel cap was not secured and had fallen off the airplane onto the runway during takeoff. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the lower fuselage longerons. The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper fuel management, which resulted in fuel starvation and a total loss of engine power, and his subsequent improper landing flare, which resulted in a hard, bounced landing. Contributing to the accident were the pilot's improper preflight inspection during which he failed to see that the right fuel cap was not secured.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA20CA089
- Event ID
- 20191121X01445
- Case number
- GAA20CA089
- 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: 0d7b96998a40eac6cf2cfee96f8b20ddfc45eb7a065c7a001e05ebcd6e15a265; retrieved 2026-09-16T10:39:50.151Z.