Cessna 150G N6389S

Summary

On 17 March 2013 at about 03:00 local time, a Cessna 150G registered N6389S was involved in an accident near Baytown, Texas, United States. One person was on board and one had minor injuries. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

17 March 2013 at 03:00

Classification

Accident

Location

Baytown, Texas, United States

Nearest airport

La Porte Municipal Airport (T41)

Coordinates

29.7258, -94.9883

Aircraft

Cessna 150G

Registration

N6389S

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Terrell → La Porte

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Night

NTSB number

CEN13CA197

1 person had minor injuries.

The pilot’s poor in-flight decision-making and improper fuel management, which resulted in a loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

The pilot reported that, during the night, cross-country flight, she had briefly considered an en route stop for additional fuel because of the increased headwind but that she decided to continue. During a shallow turn to enter the traffic pattern about 6 miles from the destination airport, the airplane experienced a total loss of power, and the pilot made an emergency off-airport landing. The airplane impacted trees and bushes in a thickly wooded area, which resulted in substantial damage to both wings and ailerons and the engine mount, fuselage, and empennage. The airplane had a total fuel capacity of 26.0 gallons with 22.5 gallons of usable fuel. Postaccident examination found that only a trace amount of fuel remained in the right tank and that the left tank was empty. The pilot estimated that the fuel consumption rate was about 7.3 gallons per hour and that the accident flight was about 3.3 hours long. Therefore, a total of about 24 gallons of fuel would have been needed for the flight, which was more than the usable fuel in the airplane. The pilot attributed her lack of more serious or fatal injuries to her use of a shoulder harness.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.