Cessna 182 N5755B

Summary

On 5 June 2024 at about 02:12 local time, a Cessna 182 registered N5755B, operated by Alpine Flight Training, was involved in an accident near Gypsum, Colorado, United States. 2 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

5 June 2024 at 02:12

Classification

Accident

Location

Gypsum, Colorado, United States

Coordinates

39.6890, -106.9288

Aircraft

Cessna 182

Registration

N5755B

Category

Airplane

Year built

1956

Engines

1

Operator

Alpine Flight Training

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Instructional

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Eagle → Eagle

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

CEN24LA210

Nobody was injured.

The failure of the flight instructor and the pilot to visually confirm the airplane’s fuel quantity during preflight, which resulted in a loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion and an off-airport forced landing in rough terrain.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The flight instructor and the pilot were conducting an instructional flight when the airplane had a total loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion. The airplane fuselage sustained substantial damage during the forced landing in rough terrain. The flight instructor reported that there were no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. The airplane operator reported that the fuel tanks remained intact after the accident, were void of usable fuel, and both fuel tank quantity gauges indicated empty. Before the flight, the flight instructor asked another flight instructor to request the fixed based operator (FBO) to refuel the airplane. However, despite the fuel request being relayed to the FBO front desk personnel, the airplane was not fueled before it departed on the flight. The flight instructor and the pilot both admitted that they did not visually confirm the fuel quantity during their preflight inspection. Additionally, believing that the fuel tanks were topped-off as requested, the pilots erroneously reset the airplane’s electronic fuel totalizer to reflect a full fuel load before takeoff.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.