LAX98FA267

The aircraft's engine ceased delivering power during the nighttime instrument landing approach. When they broke out of the clouds, it was apparent to the pilot that the aircraft would not be able to glide to the airport. He maneuvered the aircraft toward a school athletic field and made an emergency landing. The aircraft impacted a utility power pole and severed electrical power wires prior landing inverted on the athletic field. The pilot reported that prior to takeoff he checked the fuel quantity using a dipstick tool and there was 3 hours fuel aboard. He could not recall what the fuel gauges read at the time the engine quit. The flight required 1 hour 15 minutes en route. Several early responders to the accident site noted that there was no liquid fuel or fuel smells present, and that the pilot was not concerned about potential for a postaccident fire or explosion. Two of the passengers told two different witnesses that the aircraft had run out of fuel. No aircraft mechanical discrepancies were found during the investigation.

History of flight

On August 16, 1998, at 2215 hours Pacific daylight time, a Cessna 177, N177GS, was destroyed when it collided with a utility pole and trees during an emergency off-airport landing following loss of engine power at Los Angeles, California. The aircraft was on an instrument approach to the Santa Monica Municipal Airport. The airline transport licensed pilot and one passenger received minor injuries and two passengers sustained serious injuries. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the personal flight that departed Santa Barbara, California about 2100.

A flight instructor who lives near the accident site was driving nearby in his car when he heard the plane crash. He was the first person to respond to the accident site on a school athletic field, and passed a female passenger who was getting help for the other three occupants of the aircraft. When he reached the aircraft the three were just getting out of the aircraft. There was fluid on the ground and he was very concerned about fire and explosion danger and encouraged the pilot, who was attending to an injured female passenger, to move her away in case of fire. The pilot said, "it's not fuel." He smelled the liquid and believed it to be water. He reported he saw no fuel at the site and there was no fuel smell.

A security guard at a nearby grocery store was among the first people to reach the accident before emergency vehicles arrived. He said one male, who was sitting about 20 feet from the wreckage and had facial cuts, told him that they had run out of fuel and crashed.

A checker/clerk at the same grocery store held the hand of a female passenger and tried to comfort her at a location behind the store while paramedics attended to her. According to the clerk, the paramedics asked what happened to cause the accident and the passenger replied that they had run out of fuel while on approach to the airport.

According to the manager of the same grocery store, when the police arrived they were concerned about a fire and explosion danger and ordered everyone away from the aircraft. The man who was attending to the injured female told them "there's no fuel spilled," and then "there's no fuel".

Two witnesses reported that they observed the aircraft approach very low and was completely quiet. It made a steep, abrupt U-turn toward the schoolyard and there was a bright flash when the aircraft severed the power lines.

Another witness looked east from his home to see an aircraft approaching on the normal approach course to Santa Monica but very low. He thought it was about half the normal altitude. As he watched the wings "fluttered" and the aircraft entered a steep, sharp turn to the south. The wings appeared to be straight up and down and the aircraft was in a steep descent. He lost sight of the aircraft at tree level. He went to the accident site and was the second person to reach it. One man was seated a few feet away and was dizzy. The pilot was tending to the injuries of a female passenger. He asked the pilot what happened and the pilot replied he lost power. This witness recalled that he had thought it odd that he didn't smell any gas.

An inspector from the Los Angeles Flight Standards District Office (FSDO) arrived at the accident site approximately 1 hour after the accident and reported that there was no perceptible fuel smell in the area. The FSDO inspector also reported that the fire department battalion chief said that there was no fuel present when they arrived within 15 minutes of the accident.

The pilot told the Safety Board investigator that he did not add any fuel during his trip, which departed from Santa Monica and landed at Camarillo and Santa Barbara before returning to Santa Monica. They were executing the VOR A approach to runway 21 at Santa Monica when the engine ceased delivering power abruptly and without warning. He descended on the approach course but when he broke out of the clouds it was obvious they were not going to be able to glide to the runway. He knew of the athletic field from his experience instructing at Santa Monica and turned left off the approach toward the field. He did not recall what the fuel gauges read during the approach but said that, prior to leaving Santa Barbara, he dipped the fuel tanks using the dipstick tool kept in the glove box and determined that there was 3 hours fuel remaining which should have been plenty. He thinks that the fuel gauges read about 1/2 at Santa Barbara.

The aircraft owner, who was not the pilot involved in the accident, said that he was the last person to fly the aircraft before the accident. He flew it on Friday, August 14th, and he put it away in the hangar with a little less that half fuel in each of the two tanks. He estimated there were about 22 gallons of fuel remaining in the tanks.

The aircraft had an hour meter that was operated from an oil pressure activated switch on the engine. According to the aircraft log prior to start of the trip, the meter read 470.7 hours. At the accident site the meter read 473.4 hours.

According to one of the passengers, the first pilot, a flight instructor, was seated in the right front seat and the male passenger was in the left front seat. The first pilot's wife was in the right rear seat and second female passenger was in the left rear seat. All four were able to communicate by intercom/headsets in the aircraft.

Aircraft information

According to the owner of the aircraft, there were no mechanical discrepancies (squawks) on the aircraft when he completed the flight prior to the accident flight.

Meteorological information

The weather observation at Los Angeles International Airport, 6 miles southeast, taken at 2150 was overcast ceiling at 1,400 feet agl and visibility of 6 miles. The temperature was 68 and the dew point 68 degrees Fahrenheit.

Wreckage and impact information

The accident location is in a residential area in northwest corner of the athletic field of the Webster Junior High School near the intersection of Brookhaven Avenue and Sawtelle Boulevard. The site is approximately on the final approach to runway 21 at Santa Monica Airport, 1.5 miles northeast of the airport at latitude 34 degrees 01.65 minutes north, and longitude 118 degrees 26.11 minutes west (GPS).

All of the aircraft components were at the accident location and there was no fire. The fuselage (partly inverted) was lying on top of the right wing up against a baseball backstop. The wing center section and approximately the inboard 3 feet of the left wing remained with the right wing. A residential electrical and telephone utility pole, 120 feet northwest (300 degrees magnetic) of the fuselage wreckage had a scar with red and white markings approximately the color of the aircraft. The scar was on the northwest facing surface of the pole approximately 35 feet above the base, and the telephone and 220 volt electrical transmission lines were severed in the next span extending southeastward.

There was a debris field of wreckage extending in a northwest-southeast direction over the 120-foot interval between the utility pole and the fuselage wreckage. A yucca plant, 25 feet southeast of the pole, was damaged about 25 feet above the base. Forty feet southeast of the pole and 2 feet left of the centerline was a portion of the left wing flap outboard of the center hinge point. Seventy feet southeast of the pole, on centerline, was the aircraft's left wing outboard of the flap midspan. The wing spar was bent at the separation in a contour approximately equal to the shape of the utility pole, and there was a brown colored residue on the wing in proximity of the separation that resembled the preservative oil on the pole. To the right about 15 feet, on the opposite side of a fence in a residence back yard, was the horizontal stabilator. Commencing under the left wing was a family of red, white, and bla