NTSB CAROL · Event
Event GAA16CA267
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The student pilot's inadequate preflight inspection/planning, which resulted in fuel exhaustion, loss of engine power, and impact with terrain.
Factual narrative
The solo student pilot reported that while on a cross country flight the airplane's engine started to "sputter" and then stopped. During the off airport forced landing the airplane impacted a ravine. According to the student pilot, prior to the loss of engine power, there were no preimpact mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the engine mount. The airplane recovery specialist reported that he drained about two gallons of fuel from the airplane's fuel tanks prior to the airplane being moved. According to the manufacturer the airplane has 3 gallons of unusable fuel. As a safety recommendation the student pilot reported that he should have visually inspected the fuel with a fuel hawk dipstick. The solo student pilot reported that while on a cross country flight the airplane's engine started to "sputter" and then stopped. During the off airport forced landing the airplane impacted a ravine. According to the student pilot, prior to the loss of engine power, there were no preimpact mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the engine mount. The airplane recovery specialist reported that he drained about two gallons of fuel from the airplane's fuel tanks prior to the airplane being moved. According to the manufacturer the airplane has 3 gallons of unusable fuel. As a safety recommendation the student pilot reported that he should have visually inspected the fuel with a fuel hawk dipstick. 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 Aircraft-Fluids/misc hardware-Fluids-Fuel-Fluid level - C
- C Personnel issues-Task performance-Planning/preparation-Fuel planning-Student/instructed pilot - C
- — Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-Gusts-Effect on operation
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2016_GAA16CA267.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 2025 · arXiv preprint
Visual Heading Prediction for Autonomous Aerial Vehicles
The integration of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) is increasingly central to the development of intelligent autonomous systems for applications such as search and …
- arXiv 2025 · arXiv preprint
FalconWing: An Ultra-Light Indoor Fixed-Wing UAV Platform for Vision-Based Autonomy
We introduce FalconWing, an ultra-light (150 g) indoor fixed-wing UAV platform for vision-based autonomy. Controlled indoor environment enables year-round repeatable UAV experiment but imposes strict …
- arXiv 2024 · arXiv preprint
Enhanced Equivalent Circuit Model for High Current Discharge of Lithium-Ion Batteries with Application to Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing Aircraft
Conventional battery equivalent circuit models (ECMs) have limited capability to predict performance at high discharge rates, where lithium depleted regions may develop and cause a sudden exponential …
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2024 · Conference paper
A Double Taboo? An Exploratory Study of Mental Health Perceptions amongst Black Aerospace Professionals
This exploratory study delves into the often-overlooked realm of mental health perceptions among Black aerospace professionals, shedding light on a double taboo within a historically stigmatized indus…
- 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),…
- Semantic Scholar 2023 · Article (AIAA SCITECH 2023 Forum)
The Impact of Multi-Stack Fuel Cell Configurations on Electrical Architecture for a Zero Emission Regional Aircraft
All-electric aircraft can eliminate greenhouse gas emissions during aircraft mission, but the low predicted energy storage density of batteries (=0.5 kWh/kg), and their life cycle, limits aircraft pay…
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