Skip to content

Atlas / NTSB / NYC89LA217

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event NYC89LA217

1989-09-28 PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania, United States Airport · PNE Minor 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N9825U

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

UVIFY 810-00028

0

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S ADB5AC

Registrant of record

PIXIS DRONES LLC

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

FUEL STARVATION, DUE TO THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO ASSURE THE FUEL SELECTOR WAS POSITIONED TO A TANK WITH ADEQUATE FUEL FOR LANDING, AND HIS FAILURE TO FOLLOW THE PROPER EMERGENCY PROCEDURE AFTER THE TANK EMPTIED.

Factual narrative

A STUDENT PILOT REQUESTED A TOUCH AND GO LANDING ON RUNWAY 24, WHICH WAS APPROVED. WITNESSES REPORTED THAT DURING THE TAKEOFF SEQUENCE, THE AIRCRAFT BEGAN LOSING ALTITUDE. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE STUDENT TURNED THE AIRCRAFT TOWARD AN AREA BEYOND TREES WEST OF THE AIRPORT, WHERE THE PLANE WAS DAMAGED DURING A CRASH LANDING. AN EXAM REVEALED THE FUEL SELECTOR WAS POSITIONED TO AN EMPTY TANK; SEVERAL GALLONS OF FUEL WAS REMAINING IN THE OPPOSITE TANK. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1989_NYC89LA217.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 starvation). 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 ↗