- Date
- September 27, 1986, 11:28 local (15:28 UTC)
- Place
- Wilmington, DE
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N100WLWhite Lightning WLAC-1
- Weather
- Instrument (IMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19860927048819A
- Case key
- 11218
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
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
During a vfr-on-top flt with no flt plan, the eng lost power from fuel starvation. The plt did not recognize that fuel was still remaining in a non-selected aux tank. Subsequently, the acft was damaged during a forced landing on the median of a highway. Property damage consisted of broken utility wires. The plt was unaware that his partner had made a fuel system modification to the home built acft by routing the return fuel to the aux tank rather than the main tank.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N100WL
- Reported as
- White Lightning WLAC-1
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 100
- Engine
- Continental IO-360, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Operator
- Howell C. Jones
- Registered owner
- White Lightning Acft Corp.
- Airworthiness certificate
- Special, Experimental (Special)
- Departed
- Walterboro, SC
- Destination
- ILG · Wilmington, DE
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
- 59
- Certificate
- Commercial
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land, Multi-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 2, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 25,050 total · 70 in this make and model · 22,500 as pilot in command · 150 in the last 90 days · 2 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Instrument (IMC) · Day
- Wind
- 90° at 15 knots
- Visibility
- 1 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 800 ft broken
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
- Observed at
- ILG, 2 nm away
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.