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Atlas / NTSB / FTW92LA139

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event FTW92LA139

1992-05-21 VAN, Texas, United States Serious 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N3454H

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

ERCOUPE 415-CD

Year of manufacture

1948 · 44 years old at event

Engine

CONT MOTOR C85 SERIES (85 hp)

Seats / Engines

2 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19550909

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A3D2CD

Registrant of record

BOST KENNETH A

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

FUEL EXHAUSTION ENGINE POWER LOSS DUE TO THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO REFUEL. A FACTOR WAS THE LACK OF SUITABLE TERRAIN AVAILABLE FOR THE FORCED LANDING.

Factual narrative

DURING CRUISE FLIGHT THE PILOT EXPERIENCED A LOSS OF ENGINE POWER DUE TO FUEL EXHAUSTION. WHILE ATTEMPTING A FORCED LANDING TO AN OPEN FIELD, THE AIRPLANE FLEW UNDER POWER LINES AND COLLIDED WITH THE LOWER SET OF WIRES. THE WIRES SEVERED THE RIGHT ELEVATOR CAUSING A LOSS OF CONTROL. THE FAA COORDINATOR FOUND NO FUEL IN THE AIRPLANE AND SAW NO EVIDENCE OF FUEL SPILLAGE. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1992_FTW92LA139.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 (loss of control, 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.

Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗