CEN21LA303 · Aeronca 15AC
Aeronca 15AC · Accident on approach
From Hastings Airport (9D9) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN21LA303
- 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
- Event fatalities
- Unknown
- 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
Aeronca 15AC
- Aircraft type
- Aeronca 15
- 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
- N1175H
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hastings Airport (9D9), Hastings, MITo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 73 years (built 1948)
- 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 go-around
- 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
- Unknown or undetermined
- 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
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, not marked as estimated; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot receiving instruction and flight instructor were conducting a flight review. About 45 minutes into the flight, the engine “sputtered” and lost power following a practice go-around. The flight instructor took control of the airplane and performed a forced landing, during which the airplane sustained substantial damage. The pilot reported that they departed on the flight with 8 gallons of fuel in the left-wing tank and 7 gallons of fuel in the right-wing tank. The flight instructor recalled that, shortly before the loss of engine power, the left and right tanks contained about 8 gallons and 2 gallons, respectively. The mechanic who recovered the airplane reported that about 6 gallons remained in the left fuel tank and 2 gallons in the right fuel tank. The fuel caps were secure, and the accident site did not exhibit any evidence of a fuel spill. A postaccident examination and engine test run did not reveal any anomalies consistent with a preimpact failure or malfunction. Continuity of the airframe fuel system was confirmed. The reason that fuel was being drawn predominantly from the right fuel tank could not be determined. The reason for the loss of engine power could not be determined based on the available information.
Probable cause
A total loss of engine power for reasons that could not be determined based on the available information.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN21LA303
- Event ID
- 20210702103405
- Case number
- CEN21LA303
- 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, coordinates, cause areas. 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: 01f9cc96c200a89bca828185aacca9d4e1e05f44c544d3049f97c46a04727916; retrieved 2026-09-16T14:15:01.125Z.