Piper PA-44-180 N740FT

Summary

On 12 September 2021 at about 15:51 local time, a Piper PA-44-180 registered N740FT, operated by Up and Up Aviation LLC, was involved in an accident near Magnolia, Texas, 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

12 September 2021 at 15:51

Classification

Accident

Location

Magnolia, Texas, United States

Coordinates

30.1747, -95.7011

Aircraft

Piper PA-44-180

Registration

N740FT

Category

Airplane

Year built

1978

Engines

2

Operator

Up and Up Aviation LLC

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Navasota → Houston

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

CEN21LA418

Nobody was injured.

A total loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion, which resulted from the pilot’s inadequate preflight planning.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The pilot was completing a personal flight in a rented multiengine airplane and reported that during the preflight inspection, the fuel gauges indicated 17 gallons of fuel in each fuel tank. He then visually inspected each tank and confirmed fuel was present. After takeoff, he climbed to 2,000 ft mean sea level and proceeded to a nearby airport where he completed one full stop landing before he departed and proceeded back to the original airport. About 10 minutes into the return flight, the left engine experienced a loss of power, followed by the right engine 5 minutes later. The pilot attempted to execute an emergency landing to a road but struck a tree during the descent and crashed onto a residential driveway. The airplane sustained substantial damage to both wings, the empennage, and the fuselage. The fuel tanks were not breached during the accident sequence and there was no fuel on the ground near the airplane. A postaccident examination revealed that there was no fuel in either fuel tank, about 4 to 6 oz of fuel was drained from the left carburetor, and there was no fuel in the right carburetor. There were no preimpact mechanical malfunction or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. The dispatch sheets and discrepancy logs from the five previous flights did not reveal any anomalies with the fuel gauges, fuel system, or fuel consumption. Based on a postaccident fuel calculation, the airplane likely departed with a total of about 14 gallons of fuel and did not have enough fuel to complete the flight.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.