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ATL93LA165

1993-09-30 · SYLVANIA, Georgia, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport JYL

N1141Z has since been reassigned. It is now registered to a different aircraft (MOONEY M20J, built 1981), which was not involved in this event.

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

WAS THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO PROPERLY PLAN SUFFICIENT FUEL FOR THE FLIGHT WHICH RESULTED IN FUEL EXHAUSTION SHORT OF THE DESTINATION AIRPORT.

Factual narrative

On September 30, 1993, at 1435 eastern daylight time, a Cessna 150, N1141Z, was substantially damaged following a collision with terrain during a forced landing near Sylvania, Georgia. The student pilot was not injured in the accident. The aircraft operated under 14 CFR Part 91 by the pilot. Visual meteorological conditions existed at the time, and no flight plan had been filed for the instructional flight. The flight departed Winnsboro, South Carolina, and was destined for Sylvania, Georgia. According to the pilot, the flight departed Winnsboro at 1100 hours with four hours of fuel on board. Approximately three and one half hours into the flight, and three miles north of the destination airport, the airplane lost engine power. The pilot selected an open corn field and executed an emergency landing; during the final approach, the left wing struck the ground. During the subsequent aircraft examination, two gallons of fuel were recovered from the fuel system. According to the flight manual for the Cessna 150, 3.5 gallons of the total fuel capacity are unusable. Additionally, the engine was functionally checked with the existing fuel quantity and aircraft systems. The wreckage examination failed to disclose a mechanical malfunction or component failure. AFTER FLYING 3 HOURS AND 30 MINUTES INTO THE PLANNED 4 HOUR TRAINING FLIGHT, THE PILOT EXPERIENCED A LOSS OF ENGINE POWER; A FORCED LANDING WAS MADE TO AN OPEN CORN FIELD. DURING THE LANDING, THE LEFT WING STRUCK THE GROUND. DURING THE EXAMINATION OF THE AIRPLANE, TWO GALLONS OF FUEL WERE DRAINED FROM THE FUEL SYSTEM. ACCORDING TO THE AIRCRAFT FLIGHT MANUAL, 3.5 GALLONS OF THE TOTAL FUEL CAPACITY ARE UNUSABLE. THE EXAMINATION ALSO FAILED TO REVEAL A MECHANICAL MALFUNCTION OR COMPONENT FAILURE. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1993_ATL93LA165.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Related research

Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (fuel exhaustion). All research papers