Cessna T210 - F N6186R accident near Oceanside, California

Probable cause

The pilot's failure to determine the actual onboard fuel quantity before beginning the flight, which resulted in a complete loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's habitual reliance solely on the cockpit fuel flow/totalizer unit to determine fuel quantity rather than measuring the actual amount.

NTSB analysis

On the morning of the accident, the owner/pilot determined that the airplane had about 18 (out of a total capacity of 65) gallons of fuel on board by referring to the installed fuel totalizer, which calculated the fuel remaining using a pilot-entered initial fuel quantity and a sensed fuel flow rate. As was his habit, he relied solely on the fuel totalizer indication and did not verify fuel quantity by looking in or "sticking" the fuel tanks or using the airplane's fuel quantity gauges. The pilot, with one passenger onboard flew to an airport about 20 miles away to pick up another passenger and then flew to a third airport about 26 miles away, where the pilot purchased about 15 to 20 gallons of fuel. The pilot and passengers then flew to and landed at three other airports, with a cumulative straight-line distance of about 110 additional miles. Although it was available, no fuel was purchased at any of the three airports. After dark, the pilot and passengers departed for the home airport about 100 miles away. About 15 minutes after takeoff, when the airplane was at an altitude of about 3,500 ft, the engine "sputtered," and the pilot determined that the right tank was empty. He switched to the left tank, which he believed contained about 18 gallons of fuel. Shortly thereafter, the engine sustained a complete loss of power. The pilot turned the airplane toward the nearest GPS-indicated airport, which was a military facility. Although he attempted to contact air traffic control tower personnel, the tower was not operating at the time. The runway lights came on while the airplane was still airborne but too late to allow the pilot to align the airplane with the runway. The airplane touched down on a ramp area, crossed into an unpaved area, and struck a berm.

Postaccident examination recovered a total of about 2.5 gallons of fuel from the undamaged fuel tanks; the manufacturer's information indicated that each of the two fuel tanks had an unusable fuel quantity of 2.5 gallons. Using the pilot's estimates of the fuel on board at the beginning of the day and the fuel purchased en route, the pilot had flown at least 250 miles and conducted 6 takeoffs on 33 to 38 gallons of fuel. Review of the airplane manufacturer's performance data indicated that a minimum of about 36 to 40 gallons would have been required and that the actual required quantity could have been significantly greater than that, depending on power settings, engine leaning, and actual flight times and distances.

Text from the NTSB. Open the NTSB docket for WPR14LA056 for the full record.