According to the pilot, he was in cruise flight when the Piper PA-24’s engine lost full power.
He told investigators that he did not have enough time to attempt a restart of the engine or to switch fuel tanks due to the low altitude of the airplane.
He elected to conduct an off-field emergency landing near Sligo, Pennsylvania.
During the landing, the airplane hit a tree, which resulted in substantial damage to the left outboard wing, right horizontal stabilizer, and fuselage.
Examination of the airplane by an FAA inspector revealed the fuel selector was positioned on the right fuel tank-AUX position. The right fuel tank-AUX fuel tank was checked, and no fuel was discovered in the tank. However, about 75 gallons of fuel was drained from the remaining tanks.
In a telephone interview with the pilot, he stated that took off on the right AUX tank.
Probable Cause: A total loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion as a result of the pilots mismanagement of fuel.
To download the final report. Click here. This will trigger a PDF download to your device.
This October 2021 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.
This is nonsense. There is no way they could have drained 75 gallons from the left tank. The max each tank holds is 35 gallons. It takes literally 3 seconds to switch tanks on that airplane. This entire article makes me wonder how someone in aviation could write something this far from reality.
Anyone who waits until the tank is empty to switch is being ridiculous and stupid.
As a pilot of 45 plus years flying with my 2 very good flying mates we without warning whilst one of us were P1 at à safe height would either whilst P1 was distracted talking about the Mountain veiws etc we would pull the mixture to cut off or switch the fuel sélection to off. This also kept us on our toes to practice forced landings , sélect à field, get your 1000 ft point confirmed whilst at the same time making an off air Mayday call.
Practice times ten makes one nigh on perfect.
Old but not a Bold pilot.
I rented Cherokee Arrow for a flight from Canada to Mexico. The same fuel problem happened to me while approaching Tucson. The plane has 4 tanks, all selectable, and you have to drain them sequentially. It’s easy on approach, with distractions everywhere, to miss a switchover time. I was lucky.
Wouldn’t it be wiser and safer to switch to the next tank BEFORE commencing your approach? Rather than waiting until the tank is nearly dry and risking forgetting to switch tanks, resulting in an engine failure at low altitude and possibly a bent airplane?
I’ll tell you what else it looks like he was doing… scud-running. Flight Aware overlays the radar from the time of the flight and it looks like he was potentially distracted trying to penetrate holes in the precip.
It takes less than 5 seconds to turn the fuel pump on and switch tanks. I have run out of fuel a couple times on my aux trying to extend a long flight and as soon as the fuel pump comes on; the engine comes back to life.
My more immediate question is why he was “cruising” at an altitude so low that the didn’t travel time sufficient to switch tanks? I suspect that he was doing something very stupid at low altitude and forgot about monitoring his aux tank. And they are called aux tanks for a reason.
It is almost certain that this plane’s takeoff check list says “fuel selector switch on fullest main tank.” This pilot did not bother to use this very standard checklist before takeoff. Sloppy and reckless.
Head up and locked. Beautiful old Comanche with a brand new accident history. What a crying shame.
There are all sorts of reasons why aircraft have fuel systems, and other systems, of varying complexity. The point is that if you’re going to fly an aircraft, you are supposed to know its systems sufficiently well enough to be able to operate them correctly and efficiently.
I’m sorry, but this accident is nothing but just one more insanely stupid pilot trick. The guy who was flying in this case was a great candidate for a Darwin Award, and only by a stroke of luck was he not awarded his posthumously.
There should be no mystery to the design/operation/use of the aircraft’s fuel system, at least in the case of a certificated aircraft. It’s all in the Owner’s Manual, or Pilot’s Operating Handbook, or Aircraft Flight Manual that is required to be in the aircraft whenever it is operated in flight. If you don’t know the obviously most important specifics of the operation of the fuel system of the aircraft, then don’t fly it until you do.
If there is anything more insanely stupid than crashing an otherwise fully functioning aircraft because you ran it completely out of fuel (fuel exhaustion), I guess that would be running the engine out of fuel while there was still plenty of it onboard in a different tank than the one you are using (fuel mismanagement). But I don’t think there is much of anything more stupid in aviation than doing either one of these things.
I’ve always said that any person of reasonably average intelligence, health, and manual dexterity can be a GREAT pilot if he or she simply cares enough to learn and practice enough to be one. But that famous old quote that goes something like the following still rings true: “Aviation, in and of itself, is not inherently dangerous. However, to an even greater extent than the sea, it is extremely unforgiving of any carelessness, incapacity, or neglect.” This pilot, unfortunately for himself, his passenger, and the aircraft, was guilty of exhibiting all three unforgiving characteristics.
Well said, I couldn’t have said it better!
Jesus Saves!
Jesus wept!
As you state, a copy of the owner’s manual is required to be kept in the aircraft at all times. If it’s found that the manual was missing from this aircraft, could the pilot face sanctions for violating the FAR’s?
Also, not being an aircraft owner, I’m wondering if airplane insurance policies contain a “pilot error” clause which the insurer could invoke in order to avoid payment in cases like this one involving obvious pilot error?
No!!! Because then 95%+ of all GA crashes would not be covered!! Very, very, very few crashes are caused by equipment error. The rest, in my opinion, are pilot error. And the majority of those are in the pattern on a clear VFR day. This bad decision making has to stop. It’s killing to many pilots along with their friends and families.
I don’t have my various Piper manuals available but as I recall the PIC should taxi on each aux tank and do run-up and takeoff on a main tank. Fly for 30 minutes and switch to left aux which gets the excess file returned. The right main followers by the right aux. Otherwise the recess fuel will overflow and exit the plane. Only main tanks will flow to the engine in al attitudes.
Not all airplanes are same including different models.
Beech Bonanzss and Barons vary
Piper vary. Cessna 310s vary.
This pilot should not be flying!!
Maybe one of the wise owls on this service can explain it to me, but I don’t understand why all fuel tanks aren’t connected in parallel and drain simultaneously? Wouldn’t that contribute to uniform load balance and eliminate the numbskull factor from fuel tank switching forgotten? Someone please ‘splain this to me.
Thanks/Regards/Jim
Why aren’t all airplanes high wing with gravity feed fuel systems? I’m sure the designers would have a lot of reasons they are not.
Fred Weick designed a plane like that in the 1930s. Low wing. Fuel tank in each wing and one in the nose. 24 gallons total.
The nose/header tank fed the engine by gravity. The six gallon header was constantly refilled from the left wing by a mechanical fuel pump. The right wing fed into the left wing.
No switching tanks required. It was one big system. If the wings went dry (or the fuel pump failed) there was still six gallons in the header. That gave you an hour to find an airport.
The plane is the Ercoupe.
The key question would be why wasn’t that system adopted by all subsequent designs.
My thoughts;
All 4 tanks are vented and have separate fuel fill caps. Due to the dihedral of the wing, the outer tanks are higher than the inner ones.
So, if all the tanks are full, the higher tank will drain into the lower tank and the fuel will pour out of the lower tank vent.
The Beech Bonanza can have tip tanks, so it has 6 fuel tanks to manage.
Also, if the aircraft is flown slightly uncoordinated, one wing will be slightly lower than the other. Since the fuel has to be pulled from a tank on a low wing aircraft, if the tanks are interconnected and one is empty, the pump will draw air vs fuel from the other tank.
My Cessna has a tank in each wing and I usually have the fuel tank selector on ‘both’.
Since fuel flows due to gravity to the carburetor, fuel will flow from the tank with fuel in it.
[ and no fuel pump to fail !]
If I fill both tanks and the aircraft is on a slight side slope, fuel will literately pour of of the lower tank vent. I then have to move the selector to one tank to stop the cross-flow.
With most fuel system designs these days, the pilot has to accommodate the complexity of the fuel system. And the result, as we read over and over on this site, is airplanes making emergency landings even though they have plenty of fuel on board. Given the amount of technology and engineering knowledge available to aircraft designers, it seems to me that the aircraft fuel system complexity should start accommodating the pilot.
Understanding precisely what you have, where, and how that affects weight & balance considerations for one. Wing loading, stability, and chance of single tank contamination on partial fills are other concernsiderations. You are correct in viewing simplicity over bone-headed forgetfulness and the lack of proper application to a pre-takeoff checklist which, I can assure you, address this very issue.
It sometimes seems clowns are flying these things, given these reports, but I know the opposite is true. Some of these people span decades of accomplishment that go well beyond you and me.
Because fuel is typically not gravity-fed in a low-wing aircraft as it is in most high-wings.
Tip tanks, main tanks, ferry tanks. That’d why a pilot must understand the particular airplane and Std fuel tank modifications.
I’m only seeing the plane in the photos but that seems like a whole lot of field to be hitting trees in. I’m sure I could have avoided a tree there.
Looking at the photos; the plane is facing backwards. The grass is all torn up in front of the propeller.
I’m assuming there’s a tree or two right behind the photographer.
The tree he hit is not in the pictures – it’s in front of the airplane. He actually got spun around from the impact with the tree and landed backwards. He said it was like “the spinning teacups ride at the county fair”.
This was actually fuel starvation, since there was 75 gallons of fuel in the 3 other tanks.
The selected Rt. Aux tank had no fuel in it.
Another low time pilot who is not able to remember to switch tanks, which is a #1 thing to do when the engine quits.!!
Sad to see an aircraft crashed due to poor piloting ,[ and maybe poor training ? ]
Also note that the 250 has 4 tanks, but one fuel gauge, so apparently the other tanks have to be selected to see the fuel level.
The article did say he was ‘too low’ to switch tanks; which then means he was ‘cruising’ at <2k AGL or lower? Either way, a good article to read to ensure you stay proficient and avoid complacency on your skills.
The docket info indicated that he was 2,000 agl [ above ground level].
If he did not pitch for ‘best glide’ speed, the aircraft would be descending at 600-900 fpm [ feet per minute], so he had about 2+ minutes before the aircraft was on the ground.
It takes only a few seconds to reach the fuel selector and switch tanks.
This usually the 1st action on the poh [pilot operating handbook], to do if the engine quits….Next is to check the magneto switch, carb heat, etc.
This aircraft unfortunately only has 1 fuel gauge for the 4 tanks. It only indicates to amount of fuel in the selected tank.! So, the pilot needs to switch tanks periodically to know how much fuel is in each tank….and maybe write it down ?
In a PA24, there are buttons in the floor trim piece around the selector…the gauge reads the selected tank but you can push and hold any of the other three buttons and read the fuel level in the tank with the button held.
Best systems knowledge comment from a pilot not flying. Too bad the PIC didn’t know the aircraft as well as this commenter.