Cessna T337D N86182

Summary

On 22 June 2003 at about 21:00 local time, a Cessna T337D registered N86182 was involved in an accident near Driggs, Idaho, United States. 2 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

22 June 2003 at 21:00

Classification

Accident

Location

Driggs, Idaho, United States

Coordinates

43.8083, -111.2167

Aircraft

Cessna T337D

Registration

N86182

Category

Airplane

Engines

2

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Yellow Pine → Driggs

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

SEA03LA117

Nobody was injured.

The pilot's inadequate inflight decision by failing to refuel while en route, resulting in fuel exhaustion and the loss of power. A factor contributing to the accident was the unsuitable terrain for the forced landing.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The pilot calculated the distance to his destination at 201 nautical miles and estimated that he had 2 hours of fuel in the main tanks at the time of takeoff. Twelve minutes into the flight and leveling off at 13,500 feet MSL, the Global Positioning System was indicating a groundspeed of 190 knots, with the destination airport 59 minutes away. The pilot assumed he had close to 1 3/4 hours of fuel remaining, and elected to proceed directly to his destination rather than to stop and refuel. 80 nautical miles from the destination airport the pilot began a descent out of 8,000 feet MSL, and 60 nautical miles northwest of the airport he mentioned to his passenger that the right main fuel gauge, which feeds the rear engine, seemed to be reading lower than usual. The pilot switched over to the right aux tank, but two to three minutes later the rear engine started to cough. The pilot then switched back to the right main tank. Approximately 20 nautical miles from the destination airport the front engine began to fail from lack of fuel. The pilot attempted to crossfeed the front engine to the right main tank as the engine was starting to quit. Unable to keep the front engine running, the pilot feathered the front propeller. As the pilot was about to make a radio call on the airport's Unicom frequency, the rear engine began to fail from lack of fuel. The pilot feathered the rear propeller, retracted the flaps, reduced airspeed, and began looking for a forced landing site. The right seat passenger began to manually pump the gear down, but deciding that there was no suitable road within gliding range, the pilot elected to make a wheels up landing in a field. Touching down fairly hard and fast, the airplane spun 90 degrees to the left and began sliding sideways before coming to a stop in an upright position. There was no post-impact fire and neither the pilot or passenger sustained injury.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.