Cessna 150H N684RA accident near Livingston, Alabama

Probable cause

The pilot's inadequate soft-field technique during the precautionary landing, which resulted in a nose-over. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's inadequate preflight inspection, which resulted in departure with an open fuel port and the subsequent in-flight, overboard venting of the fuel supply.

NTSB analysis

After purchasing the airplane, the pilot serviced it with fuel at the self-service pump and then departed on the cross-country flight to his home airport. About 1.4 hours into the flight, he noticed the fuel quantity displayed on the fuel gauges rapidly decreasing and the electrical system "discharging." (Although the pilot reported he had been flying for 45 minutes, based on the takeoff and landing location, the airplane traveled 140 miles; the airplane's cruise speed is 100 mph; therefore, he had been flying about 1.4 hours.) The pilot chose to conduct a precautionary landing to a field. Upon landing, the nose gear dug into the soft soil, and the airplane then nosed over and came to rest inverted, which resulted in substantial damage to the engine firewall. According to the pilot, the engine was running "fine" throughout the flight, and it never stopped producing power.

The pilot recovered and disassembled the airplane before reporting the accident. During recovery, he noted that one of the two 13-gallon fuel tanks was empty and that the other tank contained about 1/4 tank of fuel (about 3 to 4 gallons), which confirmed that his fuel gauges were reading accurately. After the accident, only one fuel cap was recovered from the airplane, and a similar fuel cap was recovered at the self-service pump at the departure airport. Interpolation of performance data revealed that, at a 6 gallon-per-hour fuel consumption rate, the airplane would have consumed about 8 gallons of fuel. With one fuel tank venting overboard and the engine consuming 8 gallons of fuel from the other tank, the airplane would have contained about 4 gallons of fuel at landing.

Text from the NTSB. Open the NTSB docket for ERA14LA094 for the full record.