Cessna 172L N9832G

Summary

On 21 April 2008 at about 02:00 local time, a Cessna 172L registered N9832G, operated by Green Castle Aeor Club Ltd., was involved in an accident near Fairfax, Iowa, United States. 2 people were on board and one was seriously injured, one had minor injuries. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

21 April 2008 at 02:00

Classification

Accident

Location

Fairfax, Iowa, United States

Coordinates

41.9453, -91.8078

Aircraft

Cessna 172L

Registration

N9832G

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Green Castle Aeor Club Ltd.

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Waterloo → Oxford

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Night/Bright

NTSB number

CHI08LA108

1 person was seriously injured.

Fuel exhaustion as a result of the pilot's inadequate preflight inspection and inaccurate fuel calculations.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The pilot departed on a 3-leg round-robin flight under night visual meteorological (VMC) conditions. He did not refuel the airplane prior to departure. During the second leg of the flight, the pilot picked up two passengers and flew for about 30 minutes and deplaned them at the same airport. Then the pilot continued on the third flight leg. He was en route at 3,000 feet msl when the engine began to run rough and lost about 50 percent of its power. The pilot reported that the engine quit and he executed a forced landing to a field. The airplane nosed over in the soft soil. The Hobbs meter indicated that the accident flight was 2.9 hours in length. The pilot who flew the accident airplane previously that day reported that he did not top off the fuel prior to the 1.1-hour flight that he flew. He did not add fuel after the flight, which left about 22.3 gallons of useable fuel on board the airplane. The Pilot Operating Handbook (POH) indicated that the airplane used about 9.7 gallons of fuel during the 1.1 hour flight. According to the POH, the airplane used about 7.9 gallons per hour in cruise flight at 2,500 feet msl. An additional 1-gallon of fuel was consumed in the climb to 2,500 feet msl. The estimated fuel consumed during the accident flight was about 23.9 gallons.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.