Event CEN24LA344

Factual narrative

On September 8, 2024, at 1533 mountain daylight time, a Bellanca 7GCAA airplane, N36008, was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident near Rifle, Colorado. The pilot sustained serious injuries. The airplane was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 positioning flight. According to the owner, he had recently taken ownership of the airplane and hired a pilot to relocate it from California to Colorado. According to the pilot, he departed from Placerville Airport (PVF), Placerville, California, with the airplane’s fuel gauges both showing about ¾ full. He then landed at Yerington Municipal Airport (O43), Yerington, Nevada, and added 13.76 gallons of 100LL fuel so that both fuel tanks were full (36 gallons total). He departed O43 and flew for about 3 hours to Richfield Municipal Airport (RIF), Richfield, Utah, for another fuel stop, where he added 27.71 gallons of 100LL and the fuel tanks “were completely full.” The final leg of the flight was to Rifle Garfield County Airport (RIL), Rifle, Colorado, with a planned time enroute of about 2.5 hours. During the flight, after crossing the Utah-Colorado border, he experienced continuous updrafts and downdrafts, constant light turbulence, and occasional moderate turbulence. About 5 miles from the destination airport, the engine sputtered, so he checked the carburetor heat, mixture setting, and confirmed the fuel selector valve was on. Due to the turbulent air, the fuel gauges were bouncing so much that he could not read the fuel level. Soon after, while flying above Interstate 70, the engine lost total power. He maneuvered the airplane north of I-70 and intended to make a forced landing on a north-south dirt road. While turning onto final approach for the dirt road, he noticed power lines and pitched up to avoid a collision. The airplane entered an aerodynamic stall about 200 ft above ground level (agl), impacted terrain in a nose-low attitude, and nosed over. The pilot egressed and was assisted by bystanders and first responders. He instructed the bystanders to turn off the airplane’s electrical switches. A local pilot and nearby airport manager, who also owned a similar airplane, was notified of the accident and arrived at the site about 2 hours later. He stated that there was a ground scar about 20 ft from the wreckage and the airplane was inverted. He did not smell any fuel on the ground near the airplane and did not observe any leaking fuel. He also checked the fuel caps, which remained secure, and did not observe any fuel in the tanks. The airplane was recovered from the accident site eight days after the accident. The recovery personnel stated that the fuel caps were secure, the fuel tanks were intact, and there was no fuel leaking from the airplane. They removed about 2 gallons of fuel from the fuel system. Postaccident examination of the airplane revealed no evidence of a fuel system leak or blue fuel staining on the airplane. The fuel tank filler caps were not vented and appeared in good condition. The wings had been removed during the recovery and were mostly unremarkable except for several small holes in the fabric. The wing fuel tanks were intact, and the fuel lines had been disconnected during the recovery process. The wing fuel lines were free of obstruction. The engine remained attached to the airplane and one of the propeller blades was bent from the accident sequence. An engine test run was completed, but due to the bent propeller blade, the engine was not operated to full power. There were no preimpact anomalies noted during the examination and engine functional test run. The pilot was using the Foreflight application, which recorded a flight track log for each of the three flight legs. The first leg was 44 minutes, the second leg was 3 hours and 7 minutes, and the final leg was 1 hour and 58 minutes. The final track log showed that, at 1527, about 12 miles from RIL and about 3,300 ft agl, the airplane made a left 360° turn and descended to about 2,300 ft agl. The airplane then continued east toward RIL and descended. At 1532, while crossing over I-70 at 200 ft agl, the airplane made a gradual left turn, then cleared the powerlines at 100 ft agl. The airplane came to rest in a field about 100 yards east of the dirt road. The pilot provided fuel receipts for each of the flight legs. Before the second flight, the pilot added 13.76 gallons of 100LL aviation fuel and stated that the fuel tanks were full. The final fuel receipt showed that the pilot added 27.71 gallons of 100LL, and the pilot stated that the fuel tanks were full. A fuel consumption calculation for the second leg revealed that the engine was burning about 9 gallons per hour. Using this consumption rate, the fuel tanks should have contained over 16 gallons at the accident site, of which one gallon was unusable. The pilot documented the engine’s tachometer time at the beginning of the first flight, which was 1,251.69 hours. The tachometer time before the second flight was 1,252.54 hours. The tachometer time at the accident site was 1,257.98 hours. According to the tachometer, the total engine operating time on the day of the accident was 6.29 hours. The most recent annual inspection was completed on October 4, 2023, at a tachometer time of 1,250.25 hours. There were no unresolved discrepancies noted in the maintenance logbooks. The airplane was not operating in atmospheric conditions conducive to the formation of carburetor icing. The pilot reported that, before takeoff on the third and final flight leg of the day, he topped off the fuel tanks. About 5 miles from the destination airport, the engine began to sputter and soon after lost all power. The pilot was unable to restart the engine and elected to make an emergency landing to a field. During the approach, he pitched up to avoid powerlines and the airplane stalled and impacted the ground in a nose-low attitude then nosed over. There was no evidence of a fuel leak at the accident site and the non-vented fuel caps remained secure. About 2 gallons of fuel were removed from the fuel system during the airplane recovery. The airplane’s fuel consumption rate during the previous leg was 9 gallons per hour, so given the amount of fuel the pilot added before departing on the accident flight, the airplane should have contained about 16 gallons of fuel at the accident site. Postaccident examination revealed no evidence of a fuel leak or preimpact anomalies of the fuel system. An engine test run was completed, but due to a bent propeller blade the engine was not operated to full power. There were no preimpact anomalies noted during the examination and engine test run that would have precluded normal operation. Given the documented refueling numbers and fuel consumption rate on the flight’s previous legs, even with the continuous updrafts and downdrafts, constant light turbulence, and occasional moderate turbulence encountered on the last leg of the flight, the airplane should have had ample fuel to complete the flight. Accordingly, the reason for the loss of engine power and lack of fuel at the accident site could not be determined. 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-Aircraft systems-Fuel system-(general)-Unknown/Not determined
• — Aircraft-Aircraft power plant-Engine (reciprocating)-(general)-Unknown/Not determined