Cessna A185E N185RN

Summary

On 12 April 2020 at about 04:25 local time, a Cessna A185E registered N185RN was involved in an accident near Eagle River, Alaska, United States. 4 people were on board and 2 were seriously injured, 2 had minor injuries. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

12 April 2020 at 04:25

Classification

Accident

Location

Eagle River, Alaska, United States

Nearest airport

D&C Fire Lake Flying Club (D72)

Coordinates

61.3519, -149.5489

Aircraft

Cessna A185E

Registration

N185RN

Category

Airplane

Year built

1968

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Tyonek → Unknown

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

ANC20LA043

2 people were seriously injured.

The pilot’s failure to ensure adequate fuel onboard prior to the planned flight, resulting in a total loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion and an aerodynamic stall during the subsequent emergency landing. Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s reliance on an improperly programmed fuel totalizer.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The pilot-rated passenger reported that, during approach for landing, the engine lost total power. The pilot attempted to make an emergency landing; however, the airplane aerodynamically stalled short of the lake and impacted the ground. Upon arrival, first responders reported minimal fuel leaking from the airplane and negligible evidence of a fuel spill. A postaccident examination of the airplane revealed no evidence of preexisting malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. The passenger stated the pilot did not add fuel the day of the accident or check the fuel quantity visually before departing on the accident flight and that the pilot relied on the fuel totalizer to determine fuel onboard. Although the fuel totalizer indicated there was 7.7 gallons of fuel remaining at the time of the accident, the accuracy of the fuel totalizer requires accurate estimates of the fuel onboard the airplane to be reliable. The investigation could not determine the amount of fuel onboard prior to the accident flight. However, assuming the pilot had full fuel onboard when he last departed the airfield he commonly refueled at, fuel burn computations were consistent with the airplane consuming all usable fuel onboard at the time of the accident. It is likely the engine consumed fuel at a higher rate than the pilot planned for, and the engine lost all power due to fuel exhaustion.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.