NTSB Factual Report

On June 19, 2005, 1530 central daylight time, a Cessna 172 K, N7748L, registered to the United States Air Force, and operated by the Tyndall, Air Force Base, (AFB) Flying Club, collided with the ground at a parking lot located at Gulf Coast Community College, in Panama City, Florida. The instructional flight was operated under the provisions of Title 14 CFR Part 91 with a Visual Flight Regulations (VFR) flight plan filed. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident. The student pilot received no injuries, and the airplane sustained substantial damage. The flight departed Tyndall AFB, Panama City, Florida , on June 19, 2005 at approximately 1130.

The student pilot stated that he was in the process of completing a routine solo cross country flight back to Tyndall AFB while flying at 3,500 feet the engine sputtered and quit . When his attempts to restart the engine were unsuccessful, the student pilot chose a parking lot approximately 900 feet long at Gulf Coast Community College for an emergency landing. The airplane landed in the parking lot at the midpoint leaving approximately 400 feet of the parking lot to stop. The student pilot stated that he then applied full brakes in an effort to stop the airplane, however the airplane failed to stop by the end of the parking lot and hit a curb.

Post-accident examination of the airplane revealed the nose gear torn from the airframe and the airplane was inverted. There was also no fuel recovered from the right or left fuel tanks. Further examination revealed that the fuel tanks were not breached. The pilot reported that he took off with 38 gallons of fuel. The performance data for the Cessna 172K states that it consumes about 10.90 gallons of fuel per hour. The accident airplane had flown for a total of 4 hours since the last refueling.

NTSB Probable Cause

The pilot's inadequate planning of the fuel supply, which resulted in fuel exhaustion.