NTSB CAROL · Event
Event FTW89LA116
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
IMPROPER PLANNING/DECISION BY THE SOLO STUDENT PILOT AND INADEQUATE SUPERVISION BY THE STUDENT'S INSTRUCTOR PILOT, WHICH RESULTED IN FUEL EXHAUSTION DUE TO AN INADEQUATE SUPPLY OF FUEL. A FACTOR RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WAS: THE INSTRUCTOR PILOT'S LACK OF EXPERIENCE IN THE TYPE OF OPERATION.
Factual narrative
THE STUDENT PILOT DEPARTED THE HOME AIRPORT WITH FULL FUEL AT APRX 0815 CDT. AN ABORTED LANDING & A TOUGH-&-GO WERE PERFORMED AT AN INTERMEDIATE AIRPORT BEFORE LANDING AT ABOUT 1045 CDT. THE PILOT DEPARTED ON THE RETURN FLIGHT AT ABOUT 1115 & CRASHED LANDED ABOUT 5 MI SHORT OF THE AIRPORT. THE HOBBS METER RECORDS INDICATED THAT THE AIRCRAFT HAD FLOWN 3.8 HRS ON THE TRIP. NO FUEL WAS FOUND IN THE WING TANKS OR IN THE AREA OF THE AIRCRAFT. THE EMERGENCLY LANDING OCCURRED ON ROUGH TERRAIN. DURING THE LANDING, THE NOSE GEAR COLLAPSED & THE AIRCRAFT NOSED OVER. AN FAA COORDINATOR REPORTED THAT THE STUDENT PILOT'S INSTRUCTOR WAS RELATIVELY INEXPERIENCED AND DID NOT CONDUCT A THOROUGH ENOUGH EVALUATION OF THE STUDENT'S FLIGHT PLANNING BEFORE AUTHORIZING THE TRIP. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_1989_FTW89LA116.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
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Related research
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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 2021 · Poster
Sleep, Sleepiness, and Performance Across Three In-Flight Bunk Rest Opportunities
Introduction: Airline pilots are required to take a rest break in a bunk during long-haul flights in an effort to reduce sleepiness during critical phases of flight.
- Semantic Scholar 2020 · Article (Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy)
Routine opioid outcome monitoring in community pharmacy: Outcomes from an open-label single-arm implementation-effectiveness pilot study.
BACKGROUND In response to rising harms with prescription opioids, recent attention has focused on how to better utilise community pharmacists to monitor outcomes with opioid medicines.
- 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 …
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