Pacific 750XL N750UP

Summary

On 28 August 2017 at about 16:10 local time, a Pacific 750XL registered N750UP was involved in an accident near Harvest, 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

28 August 2017 at 16:10

Classification

Accident

Location

Harvest, Alabama, United States

Coordinates

34.8600, -86.7575

Aircraft

Pacific 750XL

Registration

N750UP

Category

Airplane

Year built

2007

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Perkasie → Huntsville

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

ERA17LA302

Nobody was injured.

The pilot's improper decision to not stop and refuel the airplane as planned and his improper in-flight fuel planning, which resulted in a total loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The commercial pilot was conducting a cross-country flight to deliver the airplane to a maintenance facility. The airplane departed with full fuel tanks. The pilot stated that, as the airplane neared the planned fuel stop airport, he thought that there was adequate fuel remaining to reach the maintenance facility, so he did not stop to refuel and continued to the destination. About 4 hours 23 minutes into the flight, which was past the expected fuel exhaustion time of about 4 hours 18 minutes (assuming a fuel burn of 50 gallons per hour, which the pilot used for his initial flight planning), the pilot declared an emergency and advised an air traffic controller that the airplane was out of fuel. The controller provided information to the pilot about nearby airports, but the airplane would not have been able to reach any of them, so the pilot initiated a forced landing to a field. Before touchdown in the field, the pilot descended to avoid power lines ahead, but the airplane hit one of the lines. The airplane touched down in the field, impacted an embankment, and came to rest upright on a road. The airplane sustained substantial damage. A small amount of fuel was observed on the ground at the accident site, and residual fuel was found in the two forward fuel tanks. Although the amount of the fuel could not be quantified, it was likely equivalent to the unusable fuel amount. Examination of the airframe fuel system components, including the fuel filter, the environmental collector tank, and the fuel lines in the engine compartment, revealed no fuel, which is consistent with fuel exhaustion. Therefore, it is likely that the pilot's improper decision to not to refuel as planned and his improper in-flight fuel planning led to the loss of all engine power due to fuel exhaustion

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.