- Date
- January 19, 1989, 19:45 local (23:45 UTC)
- Place
- Elkview, WV
- Injuries
- 2 minor
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N2409FPiper PA-38-112
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Night/bright
- Status
- Completed · report June 28, 1991
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19890119001009A
- Case key
- 11490
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
Inadequate preflight by the pilot and inadequate crew/group coordination by the flight leader (CFI), which resulted in fuel exhaustion due to an inadequate supply of fuel. A factor related to the accident was: the presence of trees in the emergency landing area.
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 acft was one of three PA-38 acft flying together from venice, FL to beaver falls, PA. The lead acft was flown by a CFI and the other two acft, including N2409F, were flown by newly certificated pvt plts. The plt of N2409F was certificated on the previous day. According to the plt of N2409F, flight planning was done by the CFI. The en route flight was without incident, except the first refueling stop was earlier than planned, because they were low on fuel. A second refueling stop was made at summerville; however, when they landed the fuel service there was closed. According to the plt, each acft had 4 gals of fuel. He said the CFI determined they had enough fuel to reach charleston, located 40 miles away. They took off and, according to the plt, about 14 miles south of charleston, his acft ran out of fuel. He made a forced landing and the acft collided with trees during the landing. The other two acft reached charleston and were refueled with more than 30 gals of fuel (capacity was 32 gals; usable fuel was 30 gals).
Aircraft
- Registration
- N2409F
- Reported as
- Piper PA-38-112
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 38-79A0425
- Airframe hours
- 3,172
- Engine
- Lycoming O-235-L2C, 112 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Ferry · Part 91
- Registered owner
- Beaver Aviation Service, Inc.
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- 100 hour · December 1, 1988 · 40 hours before
- Departed
- I07 · Summerville, WV
- Destination
- CRW · Charleston, WV
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
- 18
- Certificate
- Private
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Medical
- Class 1, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 55 total · 55 in this make and model · 25 as pilot in command · 35 in the last 90 days · 24 in the last 30 days · 9 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Night/bright
- Wind
- 200° at 5 knots
- Visibility
- 15 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 45 °F, dew point 19 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
- Observed at
- CRW, 10 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.