WPR11LA452

The airplane was in cruise flight when its engine lost power. The pilot performed a forced landing to a road, but, during the landing roll, he noticed a vehicle coming toward him. He turned the airplane to the right, off the road, through a fence, and into an adjacent field. A local law enforcement officer examined the airplane immediately after the accident and found both fuel tanks empty. He also noted that the left fuel tank’s cap was missing. Three days after the accident, the pilot found the fuel cap in the run-up area at the departure airport. The pilot stated that he had filled both fuel tanks before beginning the flight and that he either did not replace the fuel cap or left it loose following the refueling. Without the fuel cap in place, airflow over the wing suctioned fuel out of the left wing tank during flight. Because of the interconnection between the two wing fuel tanks, fuel from the right wing tank flowed into the left tank and was also lost overboard, resulting in fuel exhaustion.

On September 16, 2011, about 1000 mountain daylight time, a Cessna 182H, N1843X, sustained substantial damage during a forced landing following a loss of engine power near Paragonah, Utah. The private pilot received minor injuries, and three passengers were not injured. The owner/pilot was operating the airplane under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the personal cross-country flight, which had originated approximately 1 hour 45 minutes before the accident. A flight plan had not been filed. According to the pilot, the airplane was in cruise flight when the engine lost power. He performed a forced landing to a road, but, during the landing roll, he noticed a vehicle coming towards him. He turned the airplane to the right off the road, through a fence, and into an adjacent field. The left wing, fuselage, and firewall were bent and wrinkled. A local law enforcement officer examined the airplane immediately after the accident and found both fuel tanks empty. He also noted that the left fuel tank’s cap was missing. The pilot reported finding the fuel cap 3 days later, in the run-up area at his departure airport. The pilot stated that he had filled up both fuel tanks before beginning the flight, and that he either did not replace the fuel cap or left it loose following the refueling.