Cessna 172E N5420T

Summary

On 23 January 2009 at about 21:54 local time, a Cessna 172E registered N5420T was involved in an accident near Plano, Texas, United States. 2 people were on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

23 January 2009 at 21:54

Classification

Accident

Location

Plano, Texas, United States

Coordinates

33.0297, -96.8098

Aircraft

Cessna 172E

Registration

N5420T

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Powderly → Dallas

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

CEN09LA143

Nobody was injured.

A loss of engine power in flight due to fuel exhaustion as a result of the pilot's inadequate fuel planning.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

While en route to his destination airport, the pilot of the single-engine airplane encountered a loss of engine power. Unable to reach the destination airport, he performed a forced landing to a golf course. On the landing roll-out the airplane entered a sand bunker, resulting in substantial damage to the airplane. The pilot later reported that he departed with 17 gallons of fuel in the airplane's fuel tanks and estimated that he used 8 gallons en route to his destination. During removal of the airplane from the accident scene, about 3 gallons of fuel was found in the fuel tanks, consistent with the amount of unusable fuel in a Cessna 172E. No evidence of a fuel leak was discovered, and no fuel was found in the sand bunker where the airplane came to rest. During a test run, the airplane's engine was started and ran at various power settings; no abnormalities were noted.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.