Cessna 172N N738VZ

Summary

On 17 May 2000, a Cessna 172N registered N738VZ was involved in an accident near Atlantic Ocean. One person was on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was destroyed. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

17 May 2000

Classification

Accident

Location

Atlantic Ocean

Coordinates

Not recorded

Aircraft

Cessna 172N

Registration

N738VZ

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Ferry

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Santa Maria → La Coruna

Aircraft damage

Destroyed

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

SEA00LA100

Nobody was injured.

A loss of engine power for undetermined reasons.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

The Cessna 172N was being delivered from Tampa, Florida, to its new owner, a Spanish flight School at La Coruna, Spain. After a brief stop at Bangor, Maine, where a 124 US gallon long-range (ferry) fuel system was installed, the pilot began the trans-Atlantic portion of the flight. The aircraft performed normally on the Bangor-Gander leg and on to Santa Maria, Azores. The aircraft was fueled with 111.22 US gallons of fuel at Santa Maria adding to the fuel remaining from the flight from Gander, and the pilot estimated an endurance of 13.5 hours of fuel for the 9.5 hour flight to La Coruna. He departed Santa Maria on the wing fuel tanks and after 30 minutes, as per his established procedure, shut down the wing fuel tank system and switched over to the long-range tank system. Approximately 5 hours into the cruise portion of the flight, the engine ceased operating for unknown reasons. The pilot was unable to achieve a restart after switching to the wing tanks and further trouble shooting. The aircraft was ditched about 350 miles west of the coast of Portugal, and a Portuguese fishing vessel retrieved the pilot several hours after the ditching. The aircraft remained afloat for several hours in a nose down attitude and eventually sank in 5,000 meters of water.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.