- Date
- April 7, 1989, 17:35 local (22:35 UTC)
- Place
- Bunker Hill, IL
- Injuries
- 1 serious
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N66988Cessna 152
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report March 25, 1991
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19890407006919A
- Case key
- 14337
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
Improper preflight by the student pilot, which resulted in fuel exhaustion due to an inadequate supply of fuel. A factor related to the accident was: soft terrain.
Sequence of events
NTSB’s coding before 2008: each occurrence and phase of flight, and the causes and factors under it. The codes are defined in NTSB’s coding manual.
Analysis
The student plt rprtd that during a preflt, he checked the fuel gages, visually inspected the fuel tanks & believed the fuel tanks were about half full. He took off without refueling the acft. About 45 min later, the eng lost power & the student made an emergency landing in a wheat field. During the landing, the acft nosed over & was damaged. Records showed the acft had flown 3.8 hrs on a previous flt, after it was last refueled. At economy cruise, max flt time for this acft was estimated to be 4.22 hrs.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N66988
- Reported as
- Cessna 152
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 152-81707
- Engine
- Lycoming O-235-L2C, 110 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Instructional · Part 91
- Operator
- Premier Air Center, Inc
- Registered owner
- Lencor Inc.
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Utility
- Departed
- ALN · East Alton, IL
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
- 47
- Certificate
- Student
- Medical
- Class 3, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 60 total · 60 in this make and model · 10 as pilot in command
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 260° at 5 knots
- Visibility
- 20 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 5,000 ft overcast
- Temperature
- 50 °F
- Altimeter
- 29.00 inHg
- Observed at
- ALN, 9 nm away
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.