- Date
- August 13, 1993, 19:50 local (Aug 14, 1993, 03:50 UTC)
- Place
- Nome, AK
- Injuries
- 7 uninjured
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N6SFPiper PA-31-350
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report September 26, 1994
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- NTSB office
- Alaska Regional Office
- FAA report
- 19930813032759A
- Case key
- 2405
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Probable cause
Fuel exhaustion due to the pilot in commands improper preflight planning/preparation.
Sequence of events
NTSB’s coding before 2008: each occurrence and phase of flight, and the causes and factors under it. The codes are defined in NTSB’s coding manual.
Analysis
The business flight departed lavrentlya, russia with what the pilot-in-command estimated to be 50 gallons of usable fuel on board the airplane and landed in provideniya, russia around 40 minutes later with about 30 gallons of fuel remaining. The plane took on an additional 30 gallons of fuel. The pilot said that he normally departed provideniya with 120 gallons of fuel but that there was no additional fuel available. The flight departed provideniya with what the pilot estimated to be 1 hour and 45 minutes of fuel endurance and landed in gamble, Alaska on st lawrence island approximately 25 minutes later. The pilot did not dip stick the fuel tanks to verify the amount of fuel on board. The pilot did not check on the availability of fuel in gamble. The right and left engines lost power approximately 40 minutes and 50 minutes, respectively after departing gamble. The airplane did not carry personal flotation devices for the passengers.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N6SF
- Reported as
- Piper PA-31-350
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 31-7405204
- Airframe hours
- 8,083
- Engine
- Lycoming TIO-540-J2BD, 350 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Flight
- Business · Part 91
- Operator
- Marc Aviation
- Registered owner
- Amundsen, John D. & Timothy E.
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · July 22, 1993 · 42 hours before
- Departed
- Gamble, AK
- Flight plan
- IFR
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 70
- Certificates
- Commercial, Flight instructor
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land, Multi-engine land, Single-engine sea
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 2, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Seat
- Left
- Toxicology
- Performed
- Flight hours
- 17,943 total · 317 in this make and model · 17,806 as pilot in command · 125 in the last 90 days · 47 in the last 30 days · 2 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- Calm
- Visibility
- 50 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 61 °F, dew point -0 °F
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.