- Date
- January 14, 2025, 07:00 local (12:00 UTC)
- Place
- Conway, SC
- Injuries
- 2 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Approach
- Aircraft
- N938SEJonathan C Eggers Challenger II
- Defining event
- Approach: Fuel exhaustion
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Dawn
- Status
- Completed
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- Investigation class
- Class 4 - Basic report with no Prelim publish
- NTSB office
- Eastern Region Aviation
- Parties
- FAA/FSDO
- FAA report
- 20250114001029A
- Case key
- 199555
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 fuel planning, which resulted in a total total loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion.
Findings · 2
NTSB’s coded findings. Those marked are part of the probable cause; the rest are factors or other findings. Under each, the cases with the same finding.
Sequence of events
The events NTSB coded, in order, by phase of flight. The defining event is the one that best describes the accident. Under each, the cases with the same event anywhere in their sequence.
Analysis
At the end of a 2.5-hour flight, the pilot had started his approach to land at his destination airport when the engine lost total power after its usable fuel supply was exhausted. The pilot then attempted a forced landing, but while attempting to avoid a powerline, the airplane struck a barn. The airplane came to rest in a ditch along a rural road and sustained substantial damage to the left wing and fuselage. The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions of the airplane that would have precluded normal operation
Aircraft
- Registration
- N938SE
- Reported as
- Jonathan C Eggers Challenger II
- Category
- Airplane, amateur-built
- Serial number
- CH2 0591-0687
- Built
- 1991
- Airframe hours
- 150
- Engine
- Rotax 503, 53 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Airworthiness certificate
- Special, Experimental (Special)
- Last inspection
- Condition · March 24, 2022 · 150 hours before
- Departed
- KGRD · Greenwood, SC
- Destination
- KHYW · Conway, SC
- Airport
- HYW · Conway-Horry County
- Equipment
- Unknown
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
- 27
- Injuries
- None
- Certificates
- Commercial, Flight instructor
- Airplane ratings
- Multi-engine land, Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 1, Without waivers/limitations
- Last flight review
- July 29, 2024
- Seat
- Front
- Restraint
- Lap only
- Flight hours
- 766 total · 9 in this make and model · 645 as pilot in command · 124 in the last 90 days · 9 in the last 30 days · 0 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Dawn
- Wind
- Calm
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 28 °F, dew point 27 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.22 inHg
- Turbulence
- Unknown
- Observed at
- HYW, 4 nm away
- METAR
- KHYW 141155Z AUTO 00000KT 10SM CLR M02/M03 A3022 RMK AO2
Docket · 3
The files NTSB released with the investigation on May 9, 2025, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 3.5 MB in all.
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.