Temco D-16A N716T

Summary

On 16 February 2013 at about 00:00 local time, a Temco D-16A registered N716T, operated by Hamilton GAY M, was involved in an accident near Heber, California, United States. One person was on board and 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

16 February 2013 at 00:00

Classification

Accident

Location

Heber, California, United States

Coordinates

32.7517, -115.5186

Aircraft

Temco D-16A

Registration

N716T

Category

Airplane

Engines

2

Operator

Hamilton GAY M

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Chino → Imperial

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

WPR13LA125

1 person had minor injuries.

A loss of engine power during cruise flight due to fuel exhaustion. Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s inadequate preflight and fuel planning.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The pilot departed for what he anticipated would be a 1-hour cross-country flight. The airplane's two engines were supplied with fuel from a single main tank that he said contained 42 gallons at departure; however, he did not check the fuel quantity during his preflight inspection.. The pilot estimated the airplane burned 20 gallons of fuel per hour. As he neared his destination, both engines simultaneously stopped producing power. He turned on both fuel boost pumps, and both engines restarted. After about 1 minute, they shut down once again. He performed a forced landing to a muddy field. Postaccident examination of the airplane revealed no fuel in the airplane's main fuel tank and no indications of fuel leaks. The airplane had just received an annual inspection. Fuel records indicated that 20 gallons were added to the airplane's main fuel tank 13 days before the annual inspection was signed off. The accident flight was the first flight since the annual inspection, and the airplane's hour meter reading at the time of the accident indicated it had been flown 1.5 hours since the inspection was completed. The pilot said that he encountered a 30-knot headwind on the flight and that he had mistakenly programmed his GPS for the VORTAC, which was about 7 nautical miles past his destination airport. Regardless, had the pilot performed an adequate preflight inspection of the main fuel tank and adequate preflight calculations, he would have likely determined before departure that there was inadequate fuel to reach his destination.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.