Cessna 150L N16078

Summary

On 25 November 2013 at about 17:15 local time, a Cessna 150L registered N16078, operated by Christenson Neil L, was involved in an accident near Hopewell, Alabama, 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

25 November 2013 at 17:15

Classification

Accident

Location

Hopewell, Alabama, United States

Coordinates

33.3569, -86.9478

Aircraft

Cessna 150L

Registration

N16078

Category

Airplane

Year built

1972

Engines

1

Operator

Christenson Neil L

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Courtland → Bessemer

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

ERA14LA048

Nobody was injured.

A total loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion, which resulted from the pilot’s inadequate preflight inspection and preflight and inflight fuel planning that did not account for increased headwind.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The pilot reported that, before departure, she checked the fuel gauges and estimated that the fuel tanks were just under 1/2 full and contained no less than 10 gallons of fuel. (The total fuel capacity was 26 gallons, of which 3.5 gallons were unusable.) She was unable to measure the fuel because she had dropped the measuring stick into the fuel tank. The flight departed, and, about 1 hour 15 minutes after departure and about 10 miles from the destination airport, the engine lost total power. The pilot unsuccessfully tried to restart the engine and subsequently performed a forced landing to a field. No anomalies were found with the engine that would have precluded normal operation. A postaccident examination of the airplane revealed that the fuel tanks were not breached and that they contained a total of 1/2 gallon of fuel. The pilot reported that, before departing the airport, she checked the weather, which indicated that wind aloft conditions were a left quartering headwind at 6 knots. However, the wind aloft report from a station about 10 nautical miles from the accident location indicated that the wind aloft conditions ranged from a quartering headwind of 10 to 35 knots depending on the altitude of flight, which increased the duration of the flight. The pilot stated that the engine consumed about 4.4 to 5.6 gallons of fuel per hour; however, a review of the airplane owner's manual performance charts revealed that the engine could consume up to 7 gallons of fuel per hour. Because of the headwind, the flight was 1 hour 15 minutes, which would have required up to 8.75 gallons of fuel; however, the pilot took off with about 6.5 to 8.5 gallons of usable fuel. Thus, it is likely that the airplane did not have enough fuel to reach the destination airport, and the engine lost total power as a result of fuel exhaustion.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.