Cessna 170B N2567C

Summary

On 29 April 2001 at about 21:00 local time, a Cessna 170B registered N2567C was involved in an accident near Henderson, Nevada, 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

29 April 2001 at 21:00

Classification

Accident

Location

Henderson, Nevada, United States

Nearest airport

Henderson Executive Airport (L15)

Coordinates

36.0393, -114.9308

Aircraft

Cessna 170B

Registration

N2567C

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Henderson → Henderson

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

LAX01LA158

Nobody was injured.

The failure of the pilot to refuel the airplane, which resulted in fuel exhaustion and a forced landing in rough terrain.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

In a telephone interview, the pilot stated that he left Henderson approximately 1230 for the local flight. He stated that he took off with an estimated 15 to 18 gallons of fuel onboard. There were no records indicating that the airplane had been fueled prior to the flight. He practiced flight maneuvers and three wheel landings at a nearby dry lake bed and then landed at Jean, Nevada, airport for a 20-minute rest stop. He did not fuel the aircraft at Jean airport, which had fuel service available. He stated that during his return to Henderson, the engine slowed down and stopped approximately 3 miles from the airport. He attempted a restart. The engine restarted and ran for about 1 minute and stopped again, resulting in a forced landing 1 mile short of the airport in rough desert terrain. He stated that the accident happened at 1400. This would indicate a flight time of 1 hour 10 minutes. According to the owner's manual for the airplane, the maximum fuel consumption at sea level with the mixture leaned is 12.5 gallons per hour. At a cruise altitude of 5,000 feet with mixture leaned, the fuel consumption is 9.6 gallons per hour. The airplane holds 42 gallons of fuel in two wing tanks. The useable fuel is 37 gallons. This leaves approximately 2.5 gallons of unusable fuel in each wing tank, which would result in 13 gallons available when the airplane initially departed.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.