Pilot Debrief

Beech A23 near Fort Smith, AR — 2019-07-01

Final reportCEN19LA194
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Date
2019-07-01
Location
Fort Smith, AR, USA
Airport
FSM
Aircraft
Beech A23
Registration
N3598R
Category
Airplane
Highest injury
None
Fatalities
0
Phase of flight
Descent

Probable cause

A total loss of engine power due to fuel starvation as a result of the flight instructor's fuel mismanagement.

NTSB narrative

The flight instructor reported that the engine lost all power about 1 minute after he switched fuel tanks while returning to the airport after a local training flight. His efforts to restore engine power were unsuccessful and he performed a forced landing to a road. The airplane touched down hard and subsequently came to rest in a ditch adjacent to the road. Recovery personnel drained about 15 gallons of fuel from the left wing fuel tank and about 1/4 gallon from the right wing fuel tank. The fuel tanks appeared to be intact and no fuel leakage was observed. A postaccident engine test run was conducted with no anomalies. Based on the minimal amount of fuel recovered from the right tank, it is likely that the flight instructor exhausted the fuel in the right tank and did not switch to the left fuel tank in sufficient time to restore engine power, which resulted in fuel starvation and the total loss of engine power.

Analysis

Primary failure mode
Fuel management
First missed decision gate
Instructor did not reset fuel selector back to original tank after switching.

NTSB coding

Evidence available

  • 8 docket documents
View NTSB final reportView NTSB docket

Docket documents8

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