Cessna 150 N5058R

Summary

On 5 July 2004 at about 00:49 local time, a Cessna 150 registered N5058R was involved in an accident near Paxton, Massachusetts, 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

5 July 2004 at 00:49

Classification

Accident

Location

Paxton, Massachusetts, United States

Nearest airport

Spencer Airport (60M)

Coordinates

42.2906, -71.9500

Aircraft

Cessna 150

Registration

N5058R

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Greenville → Spencer

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Dusk

NTSB number

IAD04LA028

Nobody was injured.

The pilot's inadequate preflight planning, which resulted in a total loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion and a subsequent forced landing. Factors included the pilot's use of a fuel gauge that was calibrated for a different model airplane, and a lack of suitable terrain for the forced landing.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

During the preflight inspection of the airplane, the pilot, through the use of a stick-type fuel gage, determined that the right fuel tank contained 7 gallons of fuel, and that the left fuel tank was full. While he had flown the route in the past, on the accident flight, he climbed the airplane to 8,500 feet, which he had never done before, and subsequently descended incrementally until in the vicinity of the destination airport. During the final descent, and after 2 hours 44 minutes of flight, the engine stopped and could not be restarted. Due to the terrain, the pilot performed a forced landing into trees. Based on previous flights, he had planned that the engine to consume an average of 6 gallons of fuel per hour, and for the total flight time to be 2 hours 40 minutes. The fuel gauge, which the pilot used to determine the amount of fuel onboard prior to takeoff, was calibrated for a different model airplane that had the same size fuel tank, but a greater amount of useable fuel than the accident airplane.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.