Scottish Aviation SERIES 100 MDL 101 N432BD accident near Wichita, Kansas

Probable cause

The pilot’s improper preflight inspection during which he relied on the fuel totalizer and failed to ensure that sufficient fuel was onboard for the flight, which resulted in fuel exhaustion and a total loss of engine power.

NTSB analysis

The private pilot reported that the engine "sputtered and went to idle" during cruise flight while returning to the departure airport after a local flight. His attempts to restore engine power were not successful. The pilot subsequently conducted a forced landing, during which the airplane impacted a fence and sustained substantial damage.

During postaccident examination, the fuel totalizer indicated that 7.3 gallons of fuel remained; however, only about 1.5 gallons of fuel was recovered from the airplane. After fuel was added to each tank, an engine run was conducted, and the engine ran smoothly at idle and about 1,000 rpm, and no anomalies were noted.

The pilot reported that the airplane fuel gauges were unreliable, so he used the fuel totalizer for fuel quantity information. However, the totalizer's operating instructions stated that the instrument does not provide a measurement of the fuel in the tanks and that it "should never be used as the primary indicator of the fuel quantity." The pilot should not have used the totalizer to determine the amount of fuel onboard the airplane and his reliance on the instrument without ensuring that sufficient fuel was on board for the flight led to fuel exhaustion and a total loss of engine power.

Text from the NTSB. Open the NTSB docket for CEN16LA381 for the full record.