Wragg George SKYBOLT N328GW

Summary

On 19 December 2012 at about 19:20 local time, a Wragg George SKYBOLT registered N328GW, operated by Schurgers Frank, was involved in an accident near Sarasota, Florida, United States. One person was 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

19 December 2012 at 19:20

Classification

Accident

Location

Sarasota, Florida, United States

Coordinates

27.3097, -82.5853

Aircraft

Wragg George SKYBOLT

Registration

N328GW

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Schurgers Frank

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Venice → Venice

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

ERA13LA094

Nobody was injured.

The pilot's inadequate preflight planning and failure to monitor the fuel quantity during flight, which resulted in a total loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

About 1 month before the accident flight, the pilot added about 17 gallons of fuel to the airplane's bottom fuel tank. About 25 minutes into the accident flight, the engine experienced a total loss of engine power. The pilot ditched the airplane in the Gulf of Mexico, and it sank. A postaccident examination of the wreckage after recovery revealed no mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. The examination also revealed that the fuel tank contained 4 gallons of seawater and no fuel and that the fuel system had only trace amounts of fuel at the gascolator. According to the pilot and local authorities, no evidence of fuel leakage was found in the water. According to fuel records and the pilot's statement, it is likely that the airplane had a total of about 23 gallons of fuel on board at the last refueling; however, 6 gallons of the fuel were in the top tank and used during taxi and run-up operations. Therefore, considering the airplane's lowest fuel consumption rate of about 7.2 gallons per hour, the airplane would have been able to operate for 3.2 total hours. At the time of the accident, it had flown a total of 3.3 flight hours. Therefore, the pilot began the flight with an insufficient amount of fuel and did not monitor its quantity during the flight.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.