NTSB CAROL · Event
Event ATL90LA178
Registry · N5BW
FAA Aircraft Registry record.
Make / Model
CESSNA 150J
Year of manufacture
1968 · 22 years old at event
Engine
CONT MOTOR 0-200 SERIES (100 hp)
Seats / Engines
2 seats · 1 engine
Last airworthiness date
19680905
ADS-B equipped
Yes — Mode-S A6356C
Registrant of record
THOMPSON AUBREY C
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
THE PILOT'S NOT OBTAINING AN ADEQUATE FUEL SUPPLY FOR HIS PLANNED FLIGHT, RESULTING IN FUEL EXHAUSTION.
Factual narrative
THE PILOT HAD PLANNED A CROSS COUNTRY SIGHTSEEING FLIGHT, WITH INTERMEDIATE STOPS FOR FUEL. AT THE FIRST STOP HE ONLY PURCHASED A LIMITED AMOUNT OF FUEL BECAUSE OF THE HIGH PRICE. HE DID NOT PURCHASE FUEL AT THE SECOND STOP. ON THE FINAL LEG OF THE FLIGHT, THE ENGINE QUIT. UNABLE TO GLIDE TO THE NEAREST SUITABLE AIRPORT, HE FORCE LANDED IN A FIELD, DAMAGING THE AIRPLANE. NO FUEL WAS FOUND ON BOARD THE AIRPLANE AT THE ACCIDENT SITE, AND THE PILOT ACKNOWLEDGED EXHAUSTING HIS FUEL SUPPLY. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_1990_ATL90LA178.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
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Related research
What the literature says.
Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (fuel exhaustion). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.
- AOPA Air Safety Institute 2023 · Safety advisor
Safety Advisor: Fuel Awareness
AOPA Air Safety Institute safety advisor on preventing fuel-exhaustion and fuel-starvation accidents in general aviation. Covers pre-flight fuel planning, reserve requirements (14 CFR 91.151, 91.167),…
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Abstract
U.S. Civil Rotorcraft Accidents, 1963 through 1997
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has recorded 8,436 rotorcraft accidents during the period mid - 1963 through the end of 1997.
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Contractor Report (CR)
A study of carburetor/induction system icing in general aviation accidents
An assessment of the frequency and severity of carburetor/induction icing in general-aviation accidents was performed. The available literature and accident data from the National Transportation Safet…
- NASA NTRS 2018 · Other
Parachuting to Safety
NASA's Langley Research Center awarded Ballistic Recovery Systems, Inc., three Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contracts to research and develop a new, low cost, lightweight recovery system …
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗