- Date
- August 21, 2000, 21:05 local (Aug 22, 2000, 01:05 UTC)
- Place
- Friendly, MD
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N8709GCessna 150F
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Dusk
- Status
- Completed · report July 17, 2001
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 20000821043799A
- Case key
- 50070
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 inability to locate the airport, which resulted in fuel exhaustion. A factor related to the accident was the night light conditions.
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
While on the last leg of a solo cross-country flight, the student pilot became disoriented and contacted air traffic control for assistance. The air traffic controller at vectored the airplane over the destination airport two times, but the student pilot could not visually identify the airport due to increasing darkness. After about 20 minutes of searching for the airport, the fuel supply was exhausted, and the engine quit. The student pilot conducted a forced landing to a road, where it struck a tree before coming to rest upright. Visual inspection of the airplane after the accident revealed no evidence of fuel in the airplanes wing tanks or at the accident site.
Factual narrative
On August 21, 2000, about 2105 Eastern Daylight Time, a Cessna 150F, N8709G, was substantially damaged during a forced landing near Friendly, Maryland. The student pilot was not injured. Night visual meteorological conditions prevailed and no flight plan was filed for the solo instructional flight conducted under 14 CFR Part 91.
According to the student pilot's flight instructor, the student pilot was signed off by his flight instructor to conduct a solo cross-country flight. At 1602, the student pilot departed the Potomac Airfield (VKX), Friendly, Maryland, and proceeded to Salisbury, Maryland. The student pilot landed and then proceeded back to VKX. While proceeding to VKX, the student pilot became disoriented and contacted Andrews Air Force Base (ADW) for assistance. The air traffic controller at ADW vectored the airplane over VKX two times, but the student pilot could not visually identify the airport due to increasing darkness. After about 20 minutes of searching for the airport, the fuel supply was exhausted, and the engine stopped. The student pilot conducted a forced landing to a road, where the airplane struck a tree before coming to rest upright.
Visual inspection of the airplane by a Federal Aviation Administration inspector revealed no evidence of fuel in the airplanes wing tanks or at the accident site.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N8709G
- Reported as
- Cessna 150F
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 15062809
- Engine
- Lycoming O-200, 100 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Instructional · Part 91
- Operator
- Aviation Adventures
- Registered owner
- Robert J. Hepp
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · June 26, 2000
- Departed
- SBY · Salsbury, MD
- Destination
- VKX
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
- 19
- Certificate
- Student
- Medical
- Class 3, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 30 total · 30 in this make and model
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Dusk
- Wind
- 130° at 2 knots
- Visibility
- 7 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 61 °F, dew point 55 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
- Observed at
- ADW, 7 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.