Cessna 172 N2710U

Summary

On 16 June 2024 at about 19:35 local time, a Cessna 172 registered N2710U was involved in an accident near Eastham, Massachusetts, United States. 3 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

16 June 2024 at 19:35

Classification

Accident

Location

Eastham, Massachusetts, United States

Coordinates

41.8774, -69.9575

Aircraft

Cessna 172

Registration

N2710U

Category

Airplane

Year built

1963

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Other Work Use

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Chatham → Unknown

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

ERA24LA269

Nobody was injured.

The pilot’s inadequate preflight inspection of the airplane’s fuel quantity, which resulted in 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

In preparation for a local revenue sightseeing flight with two passengers, the pilot performed a preflight inspection of the airplane and used a generic fuel quantity dipstick that required converting the observed quantity to an actual quantity using a conversion chart. The pilot stated that he inadvertently arrived at an inaccurate quantity; instead of the 12 gallons of fuel he believed was on-board, the airplane likely only had 6 to 7 gallons. About 20 minutes into the scheduled 30-minute flight, the engine lost power completely, and the pilot subsequently performed a forced landing to a nearby beach. During the landing roll the nose landing gear collapsed resulting substantial damage to an engine mount tube. As part of the recovery from the beach, less than 1.5 gallons of fuel were drained from both of the airplane’s intact fuel tanks. A postaccident check of each fuel quantity indicating system revealed each gauge indicated empty with the fuel sending unit fully extended.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.