- Date
- December 1, 1991, 15:56 local (21:56 UTC)
- Place
- Groves, TX
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N9503TCessna 210
- Weather
- Instrument (IMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report July 23, 1993
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19911201053799A
- Case key
- 18413
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
Fuel exhaustion which precipitated the forced landing due to the pilot's inadequate fuel consumption calculations. A factor in the accident was the pilot's failure to divert to an alternate destination when he recognized that fuel exhaustion was a possibility.
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
According to the pilot, he encountered the forecast head winds en route and he intentionally ran the left tank dry and was flying on the right tank during the descent when it also ran dry. He stated that at the time of the tank change he thought about requesting an alternate, but did not. After the engine failure the pilot was given radar vectors to the final localizer approach course of a nearby airport; however, he had insufficient altitude to reach the runway. He broke out at 700 feet and was able to land on a playing field adjacent to a church in an urban area. After rolling about 234 feet, the airplane struck a baseball back stop and came to rest in the church parking lot. The pilot's fuel calculations indicated that he had 6.5 hours to fuel exhaustion, while actual fuel exhaustion occurred after 5.5 hours. The left tank ran dry at 2.6 hours and the right ran dry at 2.9 hours.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N9503T
- Reported as
- Cessna 210
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 210-57303
- Airframe hours
- 2,810
- Engine
- Continental IO-470-E, 260 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Operator
- Hawkins, Thomas R.
- Registered owner
- Hawkins, Thomas R.
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · June 28, 1991 · 19 hours before
- Departed
- 6A0 · Cartersville, GA
- Destination
- AXH · Houston, TX
- Flight plan
- IFR
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
- 50
- Certificates
- Commercial, Flight instructor
- Airplane ratings
- Multi-engine land, Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 2, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 6,000 total · 26 in this make and model · 3,500 as pilot in command · 26 in the last 90 days · 26 in the last 30 days · 8 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Instrument (IMC) · Day
- Wind
- 260° at 4 knots
- Visibility
- 2 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 700 ft broken
- Temperature
- 72 °F, dew point 68 °F
- Altimeter
- 29.00 inHg
- Observed at
- BPT, 3 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.