Piper PA24 N8023P

Summary

On 28 January 2011 at about 20:00 local time, a Piper PA24 registered N8023P was involved in an accident near Huntsville, Texas, United States. 2 people were on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

28 January 2011 at 20:00

Classification

Accident

Location

Huntsville, Texas, United States

Nearest airport

Huntsville Municipal Airport (UTS)

Coordinates

30.9028, -95.4378

Aircraft

Piper PA24

Registration

N8023P

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Livingston Airp → Huntsville

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

CEN11LA162

Nobody was injured.

The pilot’s inadequate preflight inspection to ensure the main tanks were full, which resulted in a total loss of engine power due to fuel starvation.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The pilot requested that the airplane be “topped off” with fuel before the flight. The person who refueled the airplane filled two of the four tanks with 9 gallons of fuel total, and the pilot said he visually checked that all four tanks were full during his preflight inspection. The pilot reported that after flying about 1 hour, the “engine started surging due to a lack of fuel” and quit. He made several attempts to restart the engine “by switching from all of the rest of [his] full tanks” but was unable to restart the engine and performed a forced landing to a dirt road. During the landing, the left main gear collapsed and the left wing spar sustained substantial damage. A postaccident examination of the airplane revealed both main tanks were empty and the two auxiliary tanks were full. There was no evidence of any fuel leaks at the scene. The circumstances of the accident are consistent with the airplane auxiliary tanks only being fueled and the pilot departing with insufficient fuel in the main tanks, resulting in an engine failure due to fuel starvation.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.