ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 141880
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| Date: | Friday 13 January 2012 |
| Time: | 19:30 |
| Type: |  Aero Commander 500B |
| Owner/operator: | Central Airlines Inc |
| Registration: | N524HW |
| MSN: | 1533-191 |
| Year of manufacture: | 1965 |
| Engine model: | Lycoming TI0-540 SER |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Substantial |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | 1 mile S of Bartlesville Municipal Airport, Osage County, OK -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Ferry/positioning |
| Departure airport: | Kansas City-Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport, MO (MKC/KMKC) |
| Cushing Municipal Airport, OK (CUH/KCUH) | |
| Investigating agency: | NTSB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
The pilot was en route on a positioning flight when the airplane’s right engine surged and experienced a partial loss of power. He adjusted the power and fuel mixture controls; however, a few seconds later, the engine surged again. The pilot noted that the fuel flow gauge was below 90 pounds, so he turned the right fuel pump on. The pilot then felt a surge on the left engine, so he performed the same actions he as did for the right engine. He believed that he had some sort of fuel starvation problem. The pilot then turned to an alternate airport, at which time both engines lost total power. The airplane impacted trees and terrain about 1.5 miles from the airport. The left side fuel tank was breached during the accident; however, there was no indication of a fuel leak, and about a gallon of fuel was recovered from the airplane during the wreckage retrieval. The company’s route coordinator reported that prior to the accident flight, the pilot checked the fuel gauge and said the airplane had 120 gallons of fuel. A review of the airplane’s flight history revealed that, following the flight immediately before the accident flight, the airplane was left with approximately 50 gallons of fuel on board; there was no record of the airplane having been refueled after that flight. Another company pilot reported the airplane fuel gauge had a unique trait in that, after the airplane’s electrical power has been turned off, the gauge will rise 40 to 60 gallons before returning to zero. When the master switch was turned to the battery position during an examination of another airplane belonging to the operator, the fuel gauge indicated approximately 100 gallons of fuel; however, when the master switch was turned to the off position, the fuel quantity on the gauge rose to 120 gallons, before dropping off scale, past empty. Additionally, the fuel cap was removed and fuel could be seen in the tank, but there was no way to visually verify the quantity of fuel in the tank.
Probable Cause: The total loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion and the pilot’s inadequate preflight inspection, which did not correctly identify the airplane’s fuel quantity before departure.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
NTSB
http://www.examiner-enterprise.com/sections/news/local-news/plane-goes-down-south-airport.html
https://www.fox23.com/news/local/story/Small-Plane-Crashes-Near-Bartlesville-Airport/P8ENnYEH-Ey4-zRAVQvcrA.cspx?rss=77_
http://www.examiner-enterprise.com/sections/news/local-news/plane-goes-down.html
http://bartlesvilleradio.com/pages/news/24422012/pilot-walks-away-from-plane-crash
[LINK NOT WORKING ANYMORE:http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=298&articleid=20120114_298_0_Nosign844534]
https://flightaware.com/live/flight/CTL327
https://www.faa.gov/data_research/accident_incident/preliminary_data/events01/media/04_524HW.txt
https://www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/brief.aspx?ev_id=20120117X95955&key=1
https://abpic.co.uk/images/images/1281240F.jpg (photo)
Location
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 14-Jan-2012 01:51 | gerard57 | Added |
| 14-Jan-2012 08:44 | gerard57 | Updated [Time, Aircraft type, Source, Narrative] |
| 14-Jan-2012 11:15 | Geno | Updated [Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 14-Jan-2012 13:18 | harro | Updated [Aircraft type] |
| 14-Jan-2012 19:46 | RobertMB | Updated [Time, Operator, Source, Damage, Narrative] |
| 15-Jan-2012 06:27 | Penu | Updated [Departure airport] |
| 17-Jan-2012 10:22 | Geno | Updated [Aircraft type, Registration, Cn, Source] |
| 17-Jan-2012 14:36 | RobertMB | Updated [Time, Aircraft type, Location, Nature, Source, Narrative] |
| 17-Jan-2012 14:41 | RobertMB | Updated [Location, Narrative] |
| 18-Jan-2012 04:01 | RobertMB | Updated [Source] |
| 20-Jan-2012 17:15 | Geno | Updated [Nature, Source, Narrative] |
| 21-Dec-2016 19:26 | ASN Update Bot | Updated [Time, Damage, Category, Investigating agency] |
| 27-Nov-2017 17:52 | ASN Update Bot | Updated [Operator, Other fatalities, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 11-Nov-2022 09:08 | Ron Averes | Updated [Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source] |
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