- Date
- April 19, 1993, 11:03 local (15:03 UTC)
- Place
- Melville, NY
- Injuries
- 1 minor, 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Approach
- Aircraft
- N601MSCessna 150L
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report November 19, 1993
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- Case key
- 37312
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 improper inflight planning and decision, which resulted in fuel exhaustion and the subsequent forced landing.
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 pilot and passenger departed on a 325 mile leg of a cross country flight. After flying 90 miles, with the fuel gauges reading half a tank of fuel, the pilot elected to land short of his planned destination. The pilot continued another 110 miles, where 2 miles short of the new destination, and 3 hours and 30 minutes into the flight, fuel exhaustion occurred. When the pilot attempted to land on an access road near the airport, the airplane collided with a tree, impacted the ground and slid into a truck trailer.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N601MS
- Reported as
- Cessna 150L
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 15071514
- Airframe hours
- 2,400
- Engine
- Continental O-200-A, 100 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Operator
- Joseph Tiffany
- Registered owner
- Joseph Tiffany
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · December 3, 1992 · 45 hours before
- Departed
- 3B4 · Eliot, ME
- Destination
- N99 · West Chester, PA
- Flight plan
- IFR
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
- 59
- Certificate
- Private
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 3, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 740 total · 300 in this make and model · 40 in the last 90 days · 20 in the last 30 days · 3 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 190° at 11 knots
- Visibility
- 15 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 57 °F, dew point 43 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
- Observed at
- FRG, 1 nm away