NTSB CAROL · Event
Event GAA16CA177
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot's inadequate fuel planning, which resulted in fuel exhaustion, and collision with terrain.
Factual narrative
The pilot reported that about 5 hours into a night cross country flight the engine started running rough. He switched between the left and right fuel tanks several times, adjusted the mixture, but was unsuccessful in correcting the issue. The pilot further reported that he knew that he would not make it to the nearest airport, so he turned on his landing light and looked for a place to land. The pilot landed the airplane in a pond, and came to rest on the shore. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage. A postaccident examination revealed that the right and left fuel tanks were empty. According to the pilot there were no preimpact mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation. The pilot reported that about 5 hours into a night cross country flight the engine started running rough. He switched between the left and right fuel tanks several times, adjusted the mixture, but was unsuccessful in correcting the issue. The pilot further reported that he knew that he would not make it to the nearest airport, so he turned on his landing light and looked for a place to land. The pilot landed the airplane in a pond, and came to rest on the shore. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage. A postaccident examination revealed that the right and left fuel tanks were empty. According to the pilot there were no preimpact mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation. 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).
- C Personnel issues-Task performance-Planning/preparation-Fuel planning-Pilot - C
- C Aircraft-Fluids/misc hardware-Fluids-Fuel-Fluid level - C
- — Aircraft-Fluids/misc hardware-Fluids-Fuel-Fluid management
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2016_GAA16CA177.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.
- arXiv 2023 · arXiv preprint
Large-eddy simulations of the NACA23012 airfoil with laser-scanned ice shapes
In this study, five ice shapes generated at NASA Glenn's Icing Research Tunnel (IRT) are simulated at multiple angles of attack (Broeren et al., J. of Aircraft, 2018).
- arXiv 2025 · arXiv preprint
Transonic buffet and incompressible low-frequency oscillations at high Reynolds numbers
Coherent, self-sustained oscillations of the flow over aircraft wings can lead to unsteady loads that detrimentally affect aircraft safety and stability, thus limiting the flight envelope.
- 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 ↗