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Atlas / NTSB / CHI88LA125

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event CHI88LA125

1988-06-05 ELLSWORTH, Wisconsin, United States Airport · NONE Minor 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N4757F

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

CESSNA P206B

Year of manufacture

1966 · 22 years old at event

Engine

CONT MOTOR IO 520 SERIES (285 hp)

Seats / Engines

6 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19670105

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A5D700

Registrant of record

MULCAIRE JESS E

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Factual narrative

DURING CRUISE FLIGHT THE PILOT EXPERIENCED AN ENGINE FAILURE WHICH HE BELIEVED TO BE CAUSED BY FUEL EXHAUSTION, AND EXECUTED A FORCED LANDING IN UNSUITABLE TERRAIN. POST ACCIDENT INSPECTION REVEALED THAT THE LEFT FUEL TANK CONTAINED 23 GALLONS OF FUEL AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT, ALTHOUGH BOTH FUEL GUAGES READ EMPTY. AFTERWARD THE PILOT SAID THAT HE MAY HAVE LET AIR IN THE FUEL LINES WHEN HE ROCKED THE WINGS IN AN ATTEMPT TO GET THE FUEL GUAGES TO INDICATE SOME FUEL QUANTITY, RESULTING IN FUEL STARVATION INDUCED ENGINE FAILURE. NO PREFLIGHT INSPECTION OF THE FUEL QUANTITY WAS MADE. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1988_CHI88LA125.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Related research

What the literature says.

Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (fuel exhaustion, fuel starvation, engine failure). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.

Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗