ATL97LA081
1997-06-05 · N. MYRTLE BEACH, South Carolina, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed
Airport CRE
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot's inadequate pre-flight inspection which resulted in fuel exhaustion and total loss of engine power. A factor was the soft terrain at the emergency landing site.
Factual narrative
On June 5, 1997, about 1830 eastern daylight time, a Cessna 172I, N5124G, collapsed the nose landing gear and nosed over during an emergency landing near North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The airplane was operated by the Shell Aviation Services, Inc., under the provisions of Title 14 CFR Part 91, and visual flight rules. A flight plan was not filed for the business flight. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed. There were no injuries to the commercial pilot, and the airplane was substantially damaged. Origination of the flight was the Horry County Airport, Conway, South Carolina, at an undetermined time, on the same date. According to the FAA inspector who visited the accident site, the pilot reported that the airplane's fuel supply was exhausted, resulting in a loss of engine power, forced landing, and subsequent damage to the airplane. The inspector reported that the pilot stated he did not check the fuel quantity in the airplane prior to beginning the flight. While in cruise flight, the engine quit. A forced landing was made to a soft field resulting in the collapse of the nose landing gear and the airplane nosing over onto its back. The pilot reported that he did not check the fuel quantity in the airplane prior to departing for the flight. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_1997_ATL97LA081.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
Search this event elsewhere
External sources are reported, not agency: signal that something happened, not fact about what happened.
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Related research
Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (fuel exhaustion). All research papers
- 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 …