Fuel Exhaustion & Starvation · NTSB ERA16LA258
PIPER PA24 — Westwood, MA
| Date | July 16, 2016 |
| Location | Westwood, MA |
| Aircraft | PIPER PA24 |
| Purpose of flight | Personal |
| Conditions | Day · Visual Meteorological Cond |
| Phase / occurrence | Prior to flight Preflight or dispatch event |
| Pilot age | 65 |
| Pilot total time | 4,550 hrs · High time |
| Time in type | 150 hrs |
| Fatalities | 1, 1 serious |
Probable cause
NTSB findings
- Aircraft-Fluids/misc hardware-Fluids-Fuel-Fluid management - C
- Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Use of equip/system-Pilot - C
- Personnel issues-Action/decision-Info processing/decision-Decision making/judgment-Pilot - C
What happened
The private pilot/co-owner of the airplane departed on a roundtrip flight with the right main fuel tank full and the left main fuel tank "down about three gallons." He stated that, based on his preflight performance planning and visual inspection of the fuel supply, the fuel in the main tanks would be sufficient for the flight. The outbound leg was conducted with the fuel selector on the right main tank, and the return leg was flown with the fuel selector on the left main tank. Shortly after being cleared for landing near the end of the return leg, the airplane experienced a total loss of engine power, and descended into wooded terrain about 1 mile from the airport.
Postaccident examination of the wreckage revealed that the right main fuel tank contained 2 gallons of fuel, that the left main tank was empty, and that both 15-gallon auxiliary fuel tanks were full. The engine was subsequently placed in a test cell where it started immediately, accelerated smoothly, and ran continuously at all power settings. The co-owner of the airplane stated that the left fuel tank leaked when the tank was full and that they mitigated the problem by not completely filling the left main fuel tank. The pilot likely mis-estimated the fuel available in the tanks during his preflight visual inspection, and it is likely that fuel leaked from the left tank during the flight, further reducing the available fuel quantity. These factors resulted in a loss of engine power consistent with fuel starvation.