Cessna TU206F N8728Q

Summary

On 25 June 1999 at about 17:30 local time, a Cessna TU206F registered N8728Q was involved in an accident near Saline Valley, California, United States. 4 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

25 June 1999 at 17:30

Classification

Accident

Location

Saline Valley, California, United States

Coordinates

Not recorded

Aircraft

Cessna TU206F

Registration

N8728Q

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Boulder City → Bishop

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

LAX99LA231

Nobody was injured.

The pilot's failure to verify the fuel quantity prior to departure, which led to fuel exhaustion.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The flight departed its home base, flew to another airport, and was returning home when the engine lost power due to fuel exhaustion. The pilot reported that he took off originally with full fuel tanks and had not refueled at the en route stop. He stated that he had the fuel selector positioned to the right tank, but he noticed that both the left and right fuel gauges indicated decreasing amounts of fuel. The right fuel gauge dropped to 'empty' and the engine suddenly quit. He switched the fuel selector to the left tank, turned on the boost pump, and the engine restarted. The engine quit again as he was over a group of mountains. The pilot was high and fast during the forced landing to a road and collided with an embankment. The airplane had been topped off with fuel 2 weeks prior to the accident, but the pilot did not remember if he had flown the airplane in that 2-week period; he did not maintain any type of pilot logbook or flight record. He thought that the fuel strainer valve had been stuck in the open position, allowing the fuel to drain out. According to Cessna, fuel cannot be used from both fuel tanks simultaneously, and if the fuel strainer had been stuck open, fuel would drain out only from the tank selected on the fuel selector valve. The airplane and engine were examined by an FAA inspector, with no mechanical discrepancies found. The pilot reported that he hadn't experienced any mechanical problems prior to the accident.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.