Mooney M20C N6330Q

Summary

On 7 August 2005 at about 19:45 local time, a Mooney M20C registered N6330Q was involved in an accident near Oro Valley, Arizona, 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

7 August 2005 at 19:45

Classification

Accident

Location

Oro Valley, Arizona, United States

Nearest airport

La Cholla Airpark (57AZ)

Coordinates

32.4467, -111.0039

Aircraft

Mooney M20C

Registration

N6330Q

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Novato → Oro Valley

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

LAX05LA261

Nobody was injured.

a loss of engine power due to the pilot's inaccurate fuel consumption calculations that resulted in fuel exhaustion. Contributing to the accident was the inaccuracy of the cockpit fuel gages which read 1/4 tank when empty.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

While entering the arrival pattern at the destination the airplane exhausted its fuel and the pilot executed an emergency landing short of the runway. The pilot had been airborne for about 5 hours 10 minutes. She had been managing the fuel system by switching tanks about every hour. She made the final switch to the right tank 10 minutes prior to arriving at her destination airport. She overflew the destination airport and executed the prescribed entry. While in a left-hand turn to enter the downwind leg, and at 1,500 feet above ground level (agl), the engine began to run abnormally and then lost power. She diverted to the crosswind runway, and landed short of the runway threshold in desert vegetation. An examination of the airplane revealed that neither the left wing fuel tank or the right wing fuel tank contained fuel. The tanks were not compromised and there was no evidence of fuel leakage. In this unfueled condition both left and right cockpit fuel gages read 1/4. The airplane was fueled with 1 gallon avgas in the left tank. The engine was started and ran satisfactorily.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.