- Date
- September 7, 1987, 13:30 local (19:30 UTC)
- Place
- Delta, UT
- Injuries
- 3 serious
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N3037LCessna 310J
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report May 16, 1989
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19870907058939A
- Case key
- 17130
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
Plt stated after the acc that he was not familiar with the fuel system on the Cessna 310. The main fuel tanks are on the wing tips and the aux tanks are in the wings. The plt thought the opposite. The plt departed and was burning fuel from the main tanks when the engs quit at 13,000 ft. he switched to the aux tanks and did not get a restart after 10 secs. The plt switched back to the main tanks and was unable to restart the engs. An emerg landing was made in a field. Exam of acft revealed the main tanks were empty and the aux tanks were nearly full. According to engineers at the Cessna acft co, the avg time needed for fuel to flow to the eng aft the selector valve has been moved fm one fuel tank position to another is approx 15 seconds. The plt was aware that none of the fuel gages were working on the acft.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N3037L
- Reported as
- Cessna 310J
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 31050037
- Airframe hours
- 3,074
- Engine
- Continental IO-470-U, 260 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Registered owner
- Dave Howard
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · April 4, 1987 · 34 hours before
- Departed
- PVO · Provo, UT
- Destination
- SBA · Santa Barbara, CA
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
- 30
- Certificate
- Commercial
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land, Multi-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 2, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 333 total · 10 in this make and model · 243 as pilot in command · 153 in the last 90 days · 1 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 120° at 6 knots
- Visibility
- 50 statute miles
- Temperature
- 73 °F, dew point 48 °F
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.