ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 177619
This information is added by users of ASN. Neither ASN nor the Flight Safety Foundation are responsible for the completeness or correctness of this information.
If you feel this information is incomplete or incorrect, you can submit corrected information.
| Date: | Friday 14 May 2004 |
| Time: | 08:51 |
| Type: |  Piper PA-32-260 |
| Owner/operator: | Private |
| Registration: | N3260W |
| MSN: | 32-84 |
| Total airframe hrs: | 1600 hours |
| Engine model: | Lycoming O-540-E4B5 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Substantial |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | New Bern, NC -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | Landing |
| Nature: | Private |
| Departure airport: | Mebane, NC (7NC6) |
| Beaufort, NC (MRH) | |
| Investigating agency: | NTSB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
According to the pilot, he departed a grass airstrip which had no fuel available en-route to Michael J. Smithfield in Beaufort, North Carolina. The pilot felt that the fuel gauges were unreliable and used a home made dipstick to dip the fuel tanks. He reported that he had 35 gallons of fuel onboard. From previous flights the pilot estimated that 17 gallons of fuel was all that would be required to make the trip. The pilot stated that he had recently had a new engine installed with instructions to operate it with the mixture in the full rich setting during the break-in period, so the flight was conducted with the mixture set in this position. He said that unexpected headwinds were encountered at his cruising altitude of 5,500 feet. He stated that he was originally on the left main tank when the engine sputtered and quit, at this point after checking the fuel gauges, he switched to the right main tank and called air traffic control at Cherry Point, North Carolina for flight following to Craven County Airport in New Bern, North Carolina. After about three minutes of operation on the right tank, the engine began sputtering and quit, the pilot then switched the fuel selector to each of the four tanks individually but was unable to restart the engine. The New Bern tower had authorized an emergency landing on any runway and had alerted the airport fire and rescue vehicles. During his descent the pilot raised his flaps from the approach setting to zero, this resulted in a greater sink rate. Unable to make the runway, the airplane contacted the downhill side of a knoll at 100 mph, and bounced 195 feet where it contacted the ground and stopped short of runway 04. The pilot was uninjured and during a subsequent interview he readily admitted that the engine was running fine when it lost power and that he ran out of fuel. The pilot had over-flown several airports where additional fuel could have been purchased. Post- accident examination of the airframe did not reveal any flight control anomalies.
Probable Cause: The pilot's inadequate pre-flight planning which resulted in a loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
NTSB: https://www.ntsb.gov/_layouts/ntsb.aviation/brief.aspx?ev_id=20040519X00616&key=1
Location
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 07-Jul-2015 13:05 | Noro | Added |
| 21-Dec-2016 19:30 | ASN Update Bot | Updated [Time, Damage, Category, Investigating agency] |
| 07-Dec-2017 17:58 | ASN Update Bot | Updated [Other fatalities, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description
The Aviation Safety Network is an exclusive service provided by:
Quick Links:
| ASN Home | Send Correction / Feedback |
| FSF Home | Disclaimer | Copyright |
| Contact Us | Privacy Policy |
| Press / Media |
CONNECT WITH US:
©2024 Flight Safety Foundation