The pilot stated that he calculated that the Piper PA 24-250 had sufficient fuel on board for about 90 minutes of flight; he estimated that the flight to his intended destination would take about 70 minutes.
The flight encountered weather as it approached its destination, so he decided to circle the area until the weather cleared.
Once the weather cleared, he lined up the airplane on final approach for the runway to the airport in Berrien Springs, Michigan.
The pilot stated that, about four miles from the runway, the plane experienced a total loss of engine power because it ran out of fuel.
During the subsequent forced landing, the plane impacted trees and terrain, causing serious injuries to four people.
The NTSB determined the probable cause as the pilot’s inadequate fuel planning, which resulted in a total loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion.
NTSB Identification: CEN15LA064
This November 2014 accident report is provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. Published as an educational tool, it is intended to help pilots learn from the misfortunes of others.
§ 91.151 Fuel requirements for flight in VFR conditions.
(a) No person may begin a flight in an airplane under VFR conditions unless (considering wind and forecast weather conditions) there is enough fuel to fly to the first point of intended landing and, assuming normal cruising speed –
(1) During the day, to fly after that for at least 30 minutes; or…
He wasn’t even legal with a 20 minute reserve, if he was flying VFR. I’m not IFR rated, but I believe the IFR requirements are even more strict. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong.
I wouldn’t want anything less than at least an hour reserve and I’d prefer full tanks, like most of the rest of you.
What can you say stupid is just that stupid. These darn lucky his stupidity didn’t kill somebody.
0.5 mile final, 4 mile final, 10 mile final or 20 mile final for whatever reason in this situation is totally irrelevant. What is relevant is the pilot departed with, for all intents and purposes, himself/herself and three passengers with nearly empty fuel tanks. Why anyone leaves the ground in a perfectly good airplane without full tanks has always escaped my imagination? Some will say they are overloaded if they fill the tanks. My answer is: try throwing that extra passenger in the fuel tank when they run dry. If the airplane can’t fly with full fuel tanks then you need to have a larger airplane with a bigger engine. My wife HAD (HAD because he finally was killed, along with his female passenger, because of this habit) a cousin who was notorious for filling the tanks of his King Air with just enough fuel, he thought, to reach his destination? He was a multi-millionaire so could certainly afford to fill ‘er up. You would have thought that previously running out of fuel and having to land in a Mississippi cotton patch would have taught him a lesson but it didn’t.
don’t all you guys go out flying in foul weather with a 20minute Reserve? I guess you just can’t fix stupid!
Fuel Starvation = fuel on board, can’t get it to the engine (mechanical or pilot induced)
Fuel Exhaustion = no fuel on board.
In any event, if the pilot runs out of fuel, he should return his certificates to the FAA.
Right you are Randy. Headline is updated.
Thank you for reading General Aviation News.
EVERY pattern flown with my Instructor involved power-off/carb heat-on midway downwind. If I needed power for landing on the numbers, I’d flown a faulty pattern. It’s a habit I’ve retained, along with carrying WAY too much fuel.
I don’t know about the rest of you guys but with the pattern I fly, if the engine quit on the downwind leg I can still make the deadstick landing. I can still hear my FI in my headset: Keep it tight son, keep it tight. And he meant it too. I let my pattern get get wide one day and he reached up and shoved the throttle to idle about half way through the downwind leg. He told me not to dare touch that throttle until I needed to taxi off the runway then said, “I reckon from now on you’ll keep it tight. And he was right. It’s a lesson I never forgot. Four mile final…you gotta be kidding me.
I don’t disagree with what you say but the scenario may have been a little different (there’s not enough detail in this report or the full narrative to know). The pilot circled due to weather which maybe was a thunderstorm overhead the destination airport. So maybe he was circling 4-5 southeast, which would have been along the route between the two airports. Then when the weather cleared and since he was basically on a 4-5 mile final to runway 31, he made a straight-in approach which would have saved fuel over a 45 degree pattern entry. Don’t really know what happened but from the very limited information in the reports, this is what I’m visualizing as a possibility.
Also the Tyler Mem airport is 9nm southeast of the destination along the direct route and has fuel services. There was no discussion in the reports of whether the pilot could have landed there when the weather delay became necessary.
Never…EVER…do I depart for a 70 minute flight with what I estimate is 90 minutes of fuel. And then he decides to orbit the area until the weather clears?!? Where did he think THAT flight time was coming from? If you want to play those games with your car, have fun. With an airplane? Lunacy.
Fuel is the cheapest thing you can put in an Airplane
He lined up on finial 4 miles from the airport, what does he think hes flying a 747.
why do so many pilots think that they have arrived, and call for finial when 5,4,3, even 2 miles away. Get to the airport, if having trouble you have a better chance to make a dead stick landing on the airport if your over head.
The pilot deciding to circle until the weather cleared implies there may have been a thunderstorm over the destination airport and he had to circle a few miles away.