ANC90LA081
1990-06-01 · L. SUSITNA RIV, Alaska, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed
Airport NONE
Current FAA registration · N4623T
- Make / Model
- MAULE M-4
- Engine
- CONT MOTOR 0-300 SER (145 hp)
- Seats / Engines
- 4 seats · 1 engine
- Last airworthiness date
- 19651021
- ADS-B equipped
- Yes — Mode-S A5A3DC
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
THE PILOT'S FUEL MISMANAGEMENT IN NOT HAVING SUFFICIENT FUEL TO REACH HIS DESTINATION.
Factual narrative
THE PILOT REPORTED THAT HE WAS ATTEMPTING TO COMPLETE A FLIGHT FROM ANCHORAGE TO MCGRATH AND RETURN WITHOUT REFUELING. HE TOPPED OFF THE FUEL TANKS IN ANCHORAGE PRIOR TO DEPARTURE. PRIOR TO LEAVING MCGRATH, HE VISUALLY INSPECTED, BUT DID NOT STICK THE TANKS. HE THOUGHT THE FUEL TANKS WERE SLIGHTLY MORE THAN ONE-HALF FULL. APPROXIMATELY 10 MILES FROM ANCHORAGE THE ENGINE SPUTTERED AND EVENTUALLY STOPPED. A FORCED LANDING WAS MADE IN THE TUNDRA. THE PILOT LATER STATED THAT IT IS MOST LIKELY THAT THE ENGINE QUIT DUE TO FUEL EXHAUSTION. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_1990_ANC90LA081.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
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External sources are reported, not agency: signal that something happened, not fact about what happened.
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Related research
Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (fuel exhaustion). All research papers
- arXiv 2025 · arXiv preprint NMPC-based Unified Posture Manipulation and Thrust Vectoring for Fault Recovery
Multi-rotors face significant risks, as actuator failures at high altitudes can easily result in a crash and the robot's destruction.
- AOPA Air Safety Institute 2023 · Safety advisor Safety Advisor: Fuel Awareness
AOPA Air Safety Institute safety advisor on preventing fuel-exhaustion and fuel-starvation accidents in general aviation. Covers pre-flight fuel planning, reserve requirements (14 CFR 91.151, 91.167),…
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Abstract U.S. Civil Rotorcraft Accidents, 1963 through 1997
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has recorded 8,436 rotorcraft accidents during the period mid - 1963 through the end of 1997.
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Technical Memorandum (TM) Threshold Assessment of Gear Diagnostic Tools on Flight and Test Rig Data
A method for defining thresholds for vibration-based algorithms that provides the minimum number of false alarms while maintaining sensitivity to gear damage was developed.
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Technical Memorandum (TM) Investigation of Spiral Bevel Gear Condition Indicator Validation via AC-29-2C Combining Test Rig Damage Progression Data with Fielded Rotorcraft Data
This is the final of three reports published on the results of this project. In the first report, results were presented on nineteen tests performed in the NASA Glenn Spiral Bevel Gear Fatigue Test Ri…
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Contractor Report (CR) An Evaluation of an Analytical Simulation of an Airplane with Tailplane Icing by Comparison to Flight Data
This report presents the assessment of an analytical tool developed as part of the NASA/FAA Tailplane Icing Program. The analytical tool is a specialized simulation program called TAILSM4 which was de…