- Date
- May 15, 2020, 16:30 local (21:30 UTC)
- Place
- Colchester, IL
- Injuries
- 1 serious
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N92036Cessna 172
- Defining event
- Enroute: Fuel starvation
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- Investigation class
- Class 4 - Basic report with no Prelim publish
- NTSB office
- Central Region
- Parties
- Federal Aviation Administration
- FAA report
- 20200515004849A
- Case key
- 101290
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Probable cause
The pilot's inadequate preflight of the fuel quantity which resulted in a loss of engine power due to fuel starvation during cruise flight.
Findings · 3
NTSB’s coded findings. Those marked are part of the probable cause; the rest are factors or other findings. Under each, the cases with the same finding.
Sequence of events
The events NTSB coded, in order, by phase of flight. The defining event is the one that best describes the accident. Under each, the cases with the same event anywhere in their sequence.
Analysis
The private pilot reported that he checked the fuel tanks prior to takeoff. It was dark in the hangar where he used a wire to check the fuel level in the fuel tanks. He was not wearing his glasses and he thought he had "an inch or so" of fuel. The pilot thought that was enough fuel and departed on a cross country flight. During the flight, the engine "sputtered" and lost power. The pilot turned the airplane towards the destination airport but lost airspeed, so he lowered the airplane's nose and conducted a forced landing into the trees below. A postaccident examination revealed that the airplane sustained substantial empennage, fuselage, and wing damage. The fuel tanks were empty and there was no fuel odor anywhere at the accident scene. The pilot reported that there was no mechanical malfunction/failure of the airplane during the flight.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N92036
- Reported as
- Cessna 172 (M)
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 17261541
- Built
- 1973
- Airframe hours
- 3,948
- Engine
- Lycoming O-320-E2D, 150 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · July 3, 2019
- Departed
- IL84 · Colusa, IL
- Destination
- MQB · Macomb, IL
- Equipment
- Stall warning system
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 73
- Injuries
- Serious
- Certificate
- Private
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Medical
- BasicMed
- Last flight review
- August 1, 2018
- Seat
- Left
- Restraint
- Lap only
- Flight hours
- 942 total · 942 in this make and model · 5 in the last 90 days · 5 in the last 30 days
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 360° at 3 knots
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Temperature
- 73 °F, dew point 57 °F
- Altimeter
- 29.96 inHg
- Observed at
- KMQB, 8 nm away
Docket · 3
The files NTSB released with the investigation on August 5, 2020, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 811 KB in all.
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.