Cessna 177 N3295T

Summary

On 11 July 2010 at about 21:00 local time, a Cessna 177 registered N3295T, operated by Phil Samuelian, was involved in an accident near Chino, California, 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

11 July 2010 at 21:00

Classification

Accident

Location

Chino, California, United States

Coordinates

33.9667, -117.6333

Aircraft

Cessna 177

Registration

N3295T

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Phil Samuelian

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Kernville → Corona

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

WPR10LA345

Nobody was injured.

The pilot’s inadequate fuel planning which resulted in a loss of engine power during cruise flight due to fuel exhaustion.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The pilot reported that he prepared a flight plan the night before his departure which included three legs, with a fuel stop planned after the second leg. On the day of the accident, the pilot performed a preflight inspection on the airplane and determined that he had sufficient fuel to make the planned 2-hour trip with the appropriate fuel reserve. He flew to the first planned airport, and then amended his flight plan and flew to a different airport, not originally on his flight plan. He did not preflight or consider how this leg would affect his fuel calculations. After the second stop, he did an abbreviated preflight, which consisted of visually checking the fuel and oil levels. He looked into the fuel tanks, but did not physically measure the amount of fuel. He estimated the amount of fuel on board, but did not recognize that the fuel level was too low to make the flight. He then departed for the planned fuel stop airport. The airplane was over a housing tract a few miles northwest of the destination airport when the fuel supply was exhausted and the engine lost power. The pilot made a forced landing on a golf course, but could not stop the airplane before it collided with ground obstacles.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.