Beagle B206 SERIES 2 N26GW

Summary

On 21 September 2012 at about 16:45 local time, a Beagle B206 SERIES 2 registered N26GW was involved in an accident near Perry, Florida, United States. 6 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

21 September 2012 at 16:45

Classification

Accident

Location

Perry, Florida, United States

Coordinates

29.8097, -83.5456

Aircraft

Beagle B206 SERIES 2

Registration

N26GW

Category

Airplane

Year built

1969

Engines

2

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Lake Placid → Tallahassee

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

ERA12LA571

Nobody was injured.

The pilot’s improper in-flight fuel management, which resulted in fuel starvation and the right engine’s complete loss of power. Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s improper configuration of the airplane following the loss of engine power.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

According to the pilot, before the flight, he performed a preflight inspection on the twin-engine airplane, during which he checked the fuel quantity onboard the airplane by looking at the fuel computer, which displayed 65 gallons. He then added 20 gallons of fuel to the left wing fuel tank and 25 gallons to the right wing fuel tank. He then entered the added amount of fuel into the fuel computer for a total of 110 gallons, which was consistent with the fuel gauges, which display fuel in pounds and which indicated that 275 pounds of fuel was in the left tank and 350 pounds of fuel was in the right tank. This amount should have been sufficient for the flight. After departure, the pilot turned toward his destination and climbed the airplane to about 3,000 feet above sea level. Later, the right engine began to surge, and "after going through the checklist" the pilot elected to do a precautionary landing. The pilot asked air traffic control for the closest airfield; however, the pilot, after seeing nothing but trees, decided to land on a road with the landing gear in the up position. During the landing, the left wingtip struck a tree. Examination of the wreckage revealed that both propellers were in the feathered position, the wing flaps were up, the landing gear was up, and the wing structure and both firewalls were substantially damaged. Further examination revealed that the left wing fuel tank contained about 22 gallons of fuel, and the right wing fuel tank was almost devoid of fuel. Thus, it is likely that the pilot did not monitor the fuel balance and allowed an imbalance between the two fuel tanks to occur, which resulted in the right engine being starved of fuel. This could have been remedied at any time during the cruise portion of the flight if the pilot had opened the cross-feed valve for the right engine, which would have allowed the right engine to feed fuel from the left tank and would have allowed him to balance the fuel load. Examination of the cockpit switches revealed that the airplane had not been properly configured by the pilot for one-engine-inoperative flight per the guidance contained in the operating manual. If this had been done, the the airplane could have continued to fly at altitude, allowing the pilot to reach a diversionary airport and execute a one-engine-inoperative landing.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.