NTSB CAROL · Event
Event CEN20LA385
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot’s improper fuel management, which resulted in fuel exhaustion and a loss of engine power.
Factual narrative
On September 5, 2020, about 1400 central daylight time, a Piper PA-28-140, N2875T, was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident near Red Oak, Iowa. The pilot and passenger sustained serious injuries. The airplane was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 personal flight. The airplane was located in a field following a forced landing. There was no useable fuel in either wing tank or the respective wing fuel lines. The right wing and right horizontal stabilizer sustained substantial damage. Postaccident examination of the airplane, engine, and fuel system revealed no anomalies that would have precluded normal operation. A National Transportation Safety Board Pilot/Operator Aircraft Accident/Incident Report, form 6120.1, was not received from the pilot. The airplane was located in a field following a forced landing. There was no useable fuel aboard and a postaccident examination of the engine and fuel system revealed no anomalies that would have precluded normal operation. The accident is consistent with the pilot mis-management of the fuel onboard, which resulted in a loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12
NTSB Findings
Hierarchical cause / factor breakdown from the FAA bulk avdata database. Each finding tagged C (Cause) or F (Factor).
- — Aircraft-Fluids/misc hardware-Fluids-Fuel-Fluid management
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2020_CEN20LA385.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
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Related research
What the literature says.
Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (fuel exhaustion). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.
- 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 · Contractor Report (CR)
A study of carburetor/induction system icing in general aviation accidents
An assessment of the frequency and severity of carburetor/induction icing in general-aviation accidents was performed. The available literature and accident data from the National Transportation Safet…
- NASA NTRS 2018 · Other
Parachuting to Safety
NASA's Langley Research Center awarded Ballistic Recovery Systems, Inc., three Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contracts to research and develop a new, low cost, lightweight recovery system …
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗