- Date
- June 17, 1989, 16:43 local (23:43 UTC)
- Place
- Sacramento, CA
- Injuries
- 2 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N92827Commonwealth 185
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report September 30, 1991
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19890617015939A
- Case key
- 26431
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 due to the pilot's failure to accurately determine the fuel load prior to departure.
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 aircraft experienced fuel exhaustion during cruise about two miles from the intended destination airport. The pilot landed on a high school football field and was unable to stop prior to colliding with a fence. The pilot said that he had 'never been able to completely trust the fuel quantity indicators,' and, that visual checks of the fuel tanks were not accurate due to the ground attitude of the aircraft. The pilot noted that he used a system of fuel usage calculation versus amount of fuel loaded onboard to determine the amount of fuel in the tanks at any given time. The pilot stated that he had not used a fuel dip stick device to quantify the amount of fuel in the tanks.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N92827
- Reported as
- Commonwealth 185
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 1623
- Airframe hours
- 1,017
- Engine
- Continental C-85-12, 85 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Operator
- Brostrom, Bruce O.
- Registered owner
- Bruce O Bostrom
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · March 23, 1989 · 18 hours before
- Departed
- O22 · Columbia, CA
- Destination
- SAC
- Airport
- SAC · Sacramento Exec., runway 20, 5,503 × 150 ft, grass/turf
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
- 37
- Certificates
- Flight engineer, Commercial, Airline transport
- Airplane ratings
- Multi-engine land, Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 1, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 8,902 total · 112 in this make and model · 4,769 as pilot in command · 135 in the last 90 days · 37 in the last 30 days · 2 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 310° at 7 knots
- Visibility
- 50 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 93 °F, dew point 43 °F
- Altimeter
- 29.00 inHg
- Observed at
- SAC, 1 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.
Other investigations on N92827 · 1
Matched to the same aircraft by N-number and date.