NTSB CAROL · Event
Event GAA18CA343
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot’s inadequate preflight inspection of the fuel, which resulted in fuel exhaustion and a subsequent total loss of engine power.
Factual narrative
The pilot reported that, shortly after departure, about 1000 ft. above ground level, the engine sustained a total power loss. While searching for an off-airport landing spot, he made a right turn towards the airport, positioned the fuel selector knob towards the second tank and attempted to restart the engine. The engine restarted briefly but lost power. He attempted to restart the engine again after he repositioned the fuel selector back to the original tank, but the engine did not start. He forced landed the airplane in a field with trees and heavy vegetation two miles west of the airport. The pilot added that he "should have made a positive determination of fuel on board prior to takeoff." The airplane sustained substantial damage to the right wing and fuselage. A postaccident examination by the FAA revealed no distinctive fuel odor at the accident site and only a cup of fuel was recovered from both tanks. The pilot reported that, shortly after departure, about 1,000 ft above ground level, the engine lost total power. While searching for an off-airport landing spot, he made a right turn toward the airport, positioned the fuel selector knob toward the second tank, and attempted to restart the engine. The engine restarted briefly but then lost power. He attempted to restart the engine again after he repositioned the fuel selector back to the original tank, but the engine did not start. He conducted a forced landing in a field with trees and heavy vegetation 2 miles west of the airport. The pilot added that he "should have made a positive determination of fuel on board prior to takeoff." The airplane sustained substantial damage to the right wing and fuselage. Postaccident examination by the Federal Aviation Administration inspector revealed no distinctive fuel odor at the accident site, and only a cup of fuel was recovered from both tanks. 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-Inspection-Preflight inspection-Pilot - C
- — Environmental issues-Physical environment-Object/animal/substance-Tree(s)-Contributed to outcome
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2018_GAA18CA343.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
Beyond the agency record
Search this event elsewhere.
Pre-filled searches into the sources where news + community discussion of aviation events lives. External sources are reported, not agency. Treat them as signal that something happened, not as fact about what happened.
Entity-clustered aviation events in the press — last 24 hr + 30-day archive.
Official agency record + docket.
Investigative docket: factual reports, photos, transcripts.
Long-running aviation incident database (Flight Safety Foundation).
Community NTSB synthesis blog — often has photos and witness reports.
Gold-standard aviation incident blog.
Aviation industry news search.
GA pilot forum — informed but rumor-prone.
GA pilot subreddit search.
Tail-number page — flight history (free tier limited).
AOPA Air Safety Institute search.
Mainstream press coverage. Recent events only.
Privacy-preserving news search.
External links open in a new tab. We don't ingest their content; we deep-link search queries.
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 2026 · arXiv preprint
Kalman Filtering Based Flight Management System Modeling for AAM Aircraft
Advanced Aerial Mobility (AAM) operations require strategic flight planning services that predict both spatial and temporal uncertainties to safely validate flight plans against hazards such as weathe…
- arXiv 2025 · arXiv preprint
LAA3D: A Benchmark of Detecting and Tracking Low-Altitude Aircraft in 3D Space
Perception of Low-Altitude Aircraft (LAA) in 3D space enables precise 3D object localization and behavior understanding. However, datasets tailored for 3D LAA perception remain scarce.
- arXiv 2024 · arXiv preprint
AAM-VDT: Vehicle Digital Twin for Tele-Operations in Advanced Air Mobility
This study advanced tele-operations in Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) through the creation of a Vehicle Digital Twin (VDT) system for eVTOL aircraft, tailored to enhance remote control safety and efficie…
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2024 · Conference paper
Discussion: Public Perceptions of AAM
Drs. Scott Winter and Sean Crouse have investigated consumer perceptions towards autonomous aviation systems for ten years.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2024 · Conference paper
eVTOL/AAM RPM Controlled rotor design process and research
This study focuses on the identification and optimization of key aerodynamic features in rotor blades, crucial for RPM control.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2024 · Conference paper
Shaping AAM Educational Methods: A Comparison of Traditional and Compressed Class Schedules in UAS Classes.
Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) is a paradigm shift in the versatility of the aviation industry. The obvious benefits of this platform will revolutionize a variety of aspects of the industry.
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗