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CEN21LA191

2021-04-17 · Caro, Michigan, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport CFS

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot's inadequate preflight inspection and fuel planning and improper in-flight decision-making, which resulted in a total loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion.

Factual narrative

The pilot reported that after about 45 minutes of flight, he noted the fuel gauges were not moving, so he returned to the airport. About half a mile from the airport the airplane “ran out of gas”. The pilot chose to conduct a forced landing to a road. During the landing the right landing gear struck a mailbox, and the left wing impacted a small tree before the airplane came to rest in a ditch. The airplane’s left wing and fuselage sustained substantial damage. Postaccident examination of the airplane revealed that both fuel tanks were empty. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12

NTSB Findings

FAA avdata. C = Cause, F = Factor.

  • — Personnel issues-Task performance-Inspection-Preflight inspection-Pilot
  • — Personnel issues-Task performance-Planning/preparation-Fuel planning-Pilot
  • — Personnel issues-Action/decision-Info processing/decision-Decision making/judgment-Pilot
  • — Aircraft-Fluids/misc hardware-Fluids-Fuel-Fluid level
  • — Environmental issues-Physical environment-Object/animal/substance-Tree(s)-Contributed to outcome

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2021_CEN21LA191.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