Piper PA28 - 140 N7099R accident near El Cajon, California

Probable cause

The pilot's improper in-flight fuel management, which resulted in fuel exhaustion in the selected tank, and his delayed movement of the fuel selector handle to the other tank, which resulted in a loss of engine power due to fuel starvation.

NTSB analysis

The private pilot reported that he departed for the 365-mile cross-country personal flight with 40 gallons of fuel on board the airplane, and he estimated that the fuel burn would be about 8 gallons per hour, which equated to an in-flight duration of 5 hours. About 4 hours 40 minutes into the flight and about 20 miles from the destination airport, the engine rpm dropped to 1,700, and the pilot's attempts to restore engine power were not successful. When the pilot determined that the airplane would not be able to reach the destination airport, he chose an alternate airport; however, the airplane did not have sufficient power to reach the alternate airport, so he chose to land on a residential street. During the landing roll, the airplane collided with traffic cones and a truck, which resulted in substantial damage to both wings; the truck driver stated that the airplane's propeller was not spinning when the impact occurred.

Several ounces of fuel was recovered from the right tank, and about 6 gallons of fuel was recovered from the left tank; the fuel selector was found positioned to the left tank. During a postaccident test run with 5 gallons of fuel in each tank, the engine ran normally on each tank. When the fuel selector was moved to the "off" position, the engine continued to run for 1 minute 39 seconds and then stopped. However, when the selector was subsequently positioned to a tank with fuel, the engine would not continue to run, likely due to the air in the lines. Although the selector was found in the left tank position, the pilot likely depleted the fuel from the right tank and delayed switching to the left tank, which led to the engine losing power due to fuel starvation, at which point, it could not be restarted.

Text from the NTSB. Open the NTSB docket for WPR15LA164 for the full record.