NTSB CAROL · Event
Event WPR13CA163
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot's inadequate fuel planning, which resulted in a total loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion.
Factual narrative
According to the pilot, the airplane lost engine power as he approached the destination airport. The pilot attempted to restart the engine unsuccessfully and performed a forced landing to a nearby street. During the landing roll, the airplane hit a chain link fence. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the engine firewall, undercarriage, and the tail. Examination of the wreckage revealed that the fuel tanks remained intact and were not breached, and that both tanks contained a total of 1.5 gallons of fuel. The Cessna pilot operating handbook identifies 3.0 gallons as unusable. There was no evidence of preexisting mechanical anomalies that would have precluded normal operation of the airplane. According to the pilot, the airplane lost engine power as it approached the destination airport. The pilot attempted to restart the engine unsuccessfully and performed a forced landing to a nearby street. During the landing roll, the airplane hit a chain link fence and sustained substantial damage to the engine firewall, undercarriage, and the tail. Examination of the wreckage revealed that the fuel tanks remained intact and were not breached and that both tanks contained a total of 1.5 gallons of fuel. The pilot operating handbook identifies 3.0 gallons as unusable. There was no evidence of preexisting mechanical anomalies that would have precluded normal operation of the airplane. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12
NTSB Findings
Hierarchical cause / factor breakdown from the FAA bulk avdata database. Each finding tagged C (Cause) or F (Factor).
- C Personnel issues-Task performance-Planning/preparation-Fuel planning-Pilot - C
- C Aircraft-Fluids/misc hardware-Fluids-Fuel-Fluid level - C
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2013_WPR13CA163.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),…
- 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 …
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗