- Date
- April 8, 2005, 16:45 local (21:45 UTC)
- Place
- St. Charles, MO
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N36691Piper PA-32RT-300
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report July 7, 2005
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 20050408006449A
- Case key
- 61345
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
The pilot's inadequate in-flight planning/decision by his failure to switch fuel tanks which resulted in fuel starvation and the loss of engine power. A factor was the trees.
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 airplane sustained substantial damage during a forced landing to a field after a loss of engine power. The pilot reported that the flight departed with about 36 gallons of fuel in the left tank and 14 gallons of fuel in the right tank. The pilot reported that the engine lost power about four miles from the intended destination airport. The airplane's altitude was 1,500 feet. The pilot executed a forced landing to the only open field in a suburban area. The inspection of the airplane revealed that the fuel selector was on the right fuel tank. The right fuel tank was empty and the left fuel tank was full. The inspection revealed that the airplane struck trees on its final approach to landing in the field.
Factual narrative
On April 8, 2005, at 1645 central daylight time, a Piper PA-32RT-300, N36691, sustained substantial damage during a forced landing to a field near St. Charles, Missouri, after a loss of engine power. The pilot was not injured. The CFR Part 91 personal flight departed the Roy Otten Memorial Airfield (3VS), Versailles, Missouri, at 1600, and was en route to Creve Coeur Airport (1H0), St. Louis, Missouri. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed. No flight plan was filed.
The pilot reported that the flight departed 3VS with about 36 gallons of fuel in the left tank and 14 gallons of fuel in the right tank. While approaching 1H0, the pilot contacted the Spirit of St. Louis (SUS) tower to obtain a flight clearance through the SUS class D airspace and for traffic avoidance. The pilot reported that immediately after clearing the class D airspace, the engine lost power. The pilot reported, "At this point I was at 1,500 feet flying over houses and in concentration of finding an emergency landing site and maintaining airspeed control and turning to line up with [the] field, I apparently did not have time to analyze the cause of the power loss." The pilot landed in a field about four miles west of 1H0.
The inspection of the airplane revealed that the fuel selector was on the right fuel tank. The right fuel tank was empty and the left fuel tank was full. The inspection revealed that the airplane struck trees on its final approach to landing in a field located in a suburban area.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N36691
- Reported as
- Piper PA-32RT-300
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 32R-7885202
- Engine
- Lycoming IO-540-K1G5D, 300 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Registered owner
- Keri Evans
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Departed
- 3V5 · Versales, MO
- Destination
- 1H0 · Creve Coeur, MO
- Airport
- 1H0 · Creve Coeur Airport
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
- 43
- Injuries
- None
- Certificate
- Commercial
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land, Multi-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 2
- Flight hours
- 693 total · 418 in this make and model · 35 in the last 90 days · 21 in the last 30 days
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.