- Date
- October 2, 1992, 13:12 local (17:12 UTC)
- Place
- Heathsville, VA
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Approach
- Aircraft
- N2434BPiper PA-38-112
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report June 21, 1993
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19921002039989A
- Case key
- 37250
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 improper inflight planning and decision by the student pilot resulting in fuel exhaustion.
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 student pilot was conducting a solo cross country flight. She was planning to land at an airport to refuel, but her flight time was running behind schedule, so she decided to overfly the airport and continue to her final destination. Enroute she realized that the fuel supply onboard the airplane was inadequate for the remainder of the flight, so she requested assistance from ATC. She requested vectors to an airport where she could obtain fuel. ATC vectored her to an airport, but the first attempt to land was unsuccessful, and a go-around was performed. On the second attempt, the engine quit on base leg. The pilot landed short of the runway in a corn field. The FAA found no significant fuel in the tanks.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N2434B
- Reported as
- Piper PA-38-112
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 38-79A0060
- Airframe hours
- 6,277
- Engine
- Lycoming O-235-L2C, 112 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Instructional · Part 91
- Operator
- Dawn Aeronautics, Inc.
- Registered owner
- Dawn Aeronautics, Inc.
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · January 2, 2000 · 38 hours before
- Departed
- MRB · Martinsburg, WV
- Destination
- ILG · New Castle, DE
- Flight plan
- VFR
- Airport
- 7W7 · Heathsville, runway 18, 2,400 × 50 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
- 21
- Certificate
- Student
- Medical
- Class 2, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 62 total · 62 in this make and model · 62 in the last 90 days · 21 in the last 30 days · 3 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.