Skip to content

BFO90LA060

1990-06-22 · NEWPORT NEWS, Virginia, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport PHF

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

FUEL EXHAUSTION CAUSED BY PILOT MISJUDGING THE FUEL SUPPLY. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS INACCURATE FUEL GAGES.

Factual narrative

THE PLT AND CFI WERE ON A TRAINING FLIGHT WHEN THE ENGINE LOST POWER THREE TIMES DURING THE FLIGHT. AFTER THE FIRST TWO TIMES THAT POWER LOSS OCCURRED, THE PLT WAS ABLE TO RESTORE POWER TO THE ENGINE AFTER HE SWITCHED FUEL TANKS. THE PLT TRIED UNSUCCESSFULLY TO RESTART THE ENGINE AFTER THE ENGINE LOST POWER THE THIRD TIME. THE PLT AND CFI STATED THAT THE FUEL GAGES INDICATED ADEQUATE FUEL IN THE TANKS. THE PLT VISUALLY CHECKED THE FUEL BEFORE TAKEOFF, AND HE ESTIMATED THERE WAS ABOUT 30 GALLONS OF FUEL IN THE TANKS. THE FLIGHT DURATION WAS ABOUT 45 MINUTES. POST-CRASH EXAMINATION OF THE ACFT REVEALED THE FUEL TANKS WERE EMPTY. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1990_BFO90LA060.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Search this event elsewhere

External sources are reported, not agency: signal that something happened, not fact about what happened.

Related research

Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (fuel exhaustion). All research papers