DEN99LA140
1999-08-09 · HASTY, Colorado, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed
N9103Y has since been reassigned. It is now registered to a different aircraft (AEROSTAR INTERNATIONAL INC S-60S), which was not involved in this event.
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot's failure to refuel his airplane, and the subsequent airborne fuel exhaustion. Factors were the lack of suitable terrain for a forced landing, and the high vegetation in the field.
Factual narrative
On August 9, 1999, approximately 1100 mountain daylight time, a Pzl-Mielec M-18A (Dromader), N9103Y, was substantially damaged during a forced landing near Hasty, Colorado. The commercial pilot, the sole occupant in the airplane, was not injured. The airplane was being operated by Denton Aerial Spraying, Las Animas, Colorado, under Title 14 CFR Part 137. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the local aerial application flight which originated from a private agricultural strip approximately 1 hour before the accident. No flight plan had been filed. According to the pilot, he had just finished an application job, and was flying back to his private airstrip. He said his fuel gauge was reading about 1/4 full. Two minutes later, his engine lost power. He hand pumped his fuel boost pump but there was no fuel in it. He performed a forced landing to a corn field, and the airplane nosed over. The pilot, he had just finished an application job, and was flying back to his private airstrip. He said his fuel gauge was reading about 1/4 full. Two minutes later, his engine lost power. He hand pumped his fuel boost pump but there was no fuel in it. He performed a forced landing to a corn field, and the airplane nosed over. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_1999_DEN99LA140.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.
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Related research
Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (fuel exhaustion). All research papers
- 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 …