Probable Cause: Maintenance personnel’s failure to secure the fuel strainer bowl with safety wire, which resulted in the fuel strainer bowl leaking and starving the engine of fuel. Also causal was the obstruction of two fuel injector nozzles.
20250306
Cessna 172 runs out of fuel during flight lesson
Probable Cause: The flight instructor’s inadequate fuel planning and improper in-flight decision-making, which resulted in a total loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion.
Fuel exhaustion leads to forced landing
Probable Cause: The pilot’s inadequate preflight fuel planning, which resulted in fuel exhaustion.
Failure to activate pitot heat leads to loss of control
Probable Cause: The pilot’s failure to activate the pitot heat in a timely manner during flight into icing conditions, which resulted in a temporary failure of the flight instruments and a subsequent loss of control.
Wind shear fatal for pilot
Probable Cause: The airplane’s encounter with low level wind shear associated with moderate turbulence, which resulted in a loss of airplane control.
Failure to ensure proper fuel selector position fatal for pilot
Probable Cause: The pilot’s failure to ensure a proper fuel selector position before takeoff, which resulted in a loss of left engine power due to fuel starvation. Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s failure to maintain airplane control after the loss of left engine power.
Taxiing Cessna runs into parked airplane
The pilot’s failure to maintain an adequate visual lookout during taxi, which resulted in a collision with a parked airplane. Contributing was the marshaller’s improper marshalling techniques.
Ask Paul: Is it OK to fly my Mooney lean of peak?
Question for Paul McBride, the General Aviation News engines expert: What is your professional opinion about flying a Mooney 20J with a Lycoming IO-360 engine lean of peak if the temperatures are within guideline perimeters?”
Pilot with get-there-itis crashes his newly purchased airplane
Probable Cause: The pilot’s decision to fly the airplane in which he had no experience in strong, gusting wind, which resulted his failure to maintain proper airspeed and his exceedance of the airplane’s critical angle of attack and a subsequent aerodynamic stall.









