- Date
- October 1, 1991, 11:35 local (18:35 UTC)
- Place
- Dunsmuir, CA
- Injuries
- 1 serious
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N140KBBeech A36TC
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report April 23, 1993
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19911001044419A
- Case key
- 27463
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
1) Improper preflight planning by the aircraft owner, 2) failure of the owner to refuel the aircraft, 3) operation of the aircraft by the owner and a mechanic at a known fuel state below the minimum required for takeoff, and 4) failure of the mechanic to assure that he had adequate fuel to complete the flight.
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 acft was last refueled on a previous flt. At Dunsmuir, it was parked til the next week when maint was performed for a low manifold pres prblm. The owner elected to fly the acft to redding for an annual insp. He estimated there was at least 9 gals of usable fuel remaining. He then flew to redding & picked up a mechanic. The mechanic was to fly back to Dunsmuir with the plt, then rtrn the acft to redding. Bfr depg fm redding, the mechanic looked inside both fuel tanks while the eng was running & saw no fuel in the rgt tank & some fuel in the l tank. At Dunsmuir, the owner deplaned & the mechanic depd on the 15 to 20 min flt back to redding. The plt (mechanic) said the acft was climbing abt 5 mi fm the arpt when the eng quit. Atmts to get it restarted were unsuccessful. He turned back twd the arpt, but the acft crash landed short of the rwy. Only residual fuel was fnd in the fuel tanks; fuel sys continuity was established. According to the flt manual, a min of 13 gal was reqd in each fuel tank bfr takeoff.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N140KB
- Reported as
- Beech A36TC
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- EA-36
- Airframe hours
- 1,756
- Engine
- Continental TSIO-520-4B, 300 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Ferry · Part 91
- Operator
- Lutz, Thorsten
- Registered owner
- Abreu, Dennis A
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · September 18, 1990 · 35 hours before
- Destination
- RDD · Redding, CA
- Airport
- 106 · Dunsmuir, runway 32, 3,200 × 60 ft, asphalt
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
- 48
- Certificate
- Private
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 3, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 1,413 total · 636 in this make and model · 1,302 as pilot in command · 35 in the last 90 days · 16 in the last 30 days · 1 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- Calm
- Visibility
- 35 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 73 °F
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.