NTSB CAROL · Event
Event FTW93LA129
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
FUEL EXHAUSTION INDUCED POWER LOSS AND THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO REFUEL. A FACTOR WAS THE EXISTING NIGHT CONDITIONS
Factual narrative
On April 12, 1993, at approximately 2100 central daylight time, a Cessna 150K, N6099G, was substantially damaged during a forced landing approximately 1,331 feet short of runway 17 at William P. Hobby Airport, Houston, Texas. The private pilot and a pilot rated passenger received minor injuries. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the personal flight. The flight departed Grand Prairie Airport, Grand Prairie, Texas, at approximately 1815. The flight to the Houston area was uneventful, according to the pilot. The tower tape was reviewed by a Federal Aviation Administration inspector who stated that the pilot reported his airplane running out of gas while on final approach to the runway at approximately 1,800 feet mean sea level. He then radioed that the airplane was out of gas and his engine had quit. His last transmission was that he did not think he was going to make the runway. The following information was reported by the FAA assigned inspector. The airplane was inspected by the FAA and no mechanical anomalies were noted. No fuel was in the tanks and according to aircraft rescue and fire fighter personnel at the accident site, there was no fuel leakage and no stained grass surrounding the airplane. The fuel selector switch was on the both position. One propeller blade was found bent back under the bottom of the engine. The other blade was bent back as well. Neither displayed torsional rotation signatures. The propeller spinner was found crushed on one side. The engine's crankshaft was bent. The engine and cowling were partially separated from the bottom of the firewall. The airplane nosed over approximately 16.9 feet from initial impact. THE PRIVATE PILOT HAD FLOWN APPROXIMATELY TWO HOURS AND FORTY FIVE MINUTES AND WHEN CLEARED FOR LANDING AT HIS DESTINATION, HE REPORTED TO THE CONTROL TOWER THAT THE AIRPLANE WAS RUNNING OUT OF FUEL. HE THEN REPORTED THE ENGINE HAD QUIT AND HE DID NOT THINK HE COULD MAKE THE RUNWAY FROM HIS CURRENT ALTITUDE OF 1,800 FEET MSL. THE AIRPLANE LANDED HARD APPROXIMATELY 1,331 FEET FROM THE END OF RUNWAY 17. THE NOSE GEAR COLLAPSED UPON IMPACT AND THE AIRPLANE TRAVELED APPROXIMATELY 17 FEET WHERE IT NOSED OVER ONTO ITS BACK. NO FUEL WAS FOUND IN THE FUEL TANKS AND NO LEAKAGE WAS REPORTED BY AIRCRAFT RESCUE AND FIRE FIGHTING PERSONNEL. THE CARBURETOR'S VENTURI WAS FOUND TO BE DIRTY Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_1993_FTW93LA129.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
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Related research
What the literature says.
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),…
- Semantic Scholar 2023 · Article (AIAA SCITECH 2023 Forum)
The Impact of Multi-Stack Fuel Cell Configurations on Electrical Architecture for a Zero Emission Regional Aircraft
All-electric aircraft can eliminate greenhouse gas emissions during aircraft mission, but the low predicted energy storage density of batteries (=0.5 kWh/kg), and their life cycle, limits aircraft pay…
- Semantic Scholar 2022 · Article (IEEE Transportation Electrification Conference and Expo)
Minimising the effect of degradation of fuel cell stacks on an integrated propulsion architecture for an electrified aircraft
Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC) are receiving interest as an electrical source of energy for aircraft propulsion electrification.
- 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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