Event GAA20CA001

Factual narrative

The pilot reported that, during preflight preparations, he estimated the flight time to be about 2 hours and 29 minutes with a total fuel burn of 10.1 gallons. The airplane departed with 12 gallons of fuel. About 2 hours and 25 minutes to the destination airport, the engine quit. He navigated toward a nearby field and made an off-airport landing. He noted that there were tall trees at the beginning of the field and landed long. During the landing, he saw a deep ditch and a house, so he attempted to ground loop the airplane to the left. Both wings impacted trees. The airplane sustained substantial damage to both wings. The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. The pilot reported as a safety recommendation that adding a fuel stop would have prevented the accident. The Federal Aviation Administrator inspector who examined the airplane reported that, the nose tank had evidence of fuel being in it recently, but no fuel remained in the tank (the indicator cork was still wet with fuel). Both the right and left wing tanks were examined and no evidence of fuel remained in either tank. The left fuel tank drain valve had been removed at some point in the past and the opening was covered with green painters' tape. There was no evidence of a fuel spill on the aircraft or the ground around the aircraft. The pilot reported that, during preflight preparations, he estimated that the flight time would be about 2 hours 29 minutes with a total fuel burn of 10.1 gallons. The airplane departed with 12 gallons of fuel. About 2 hours 25 minutes into the flight, the engine quit. The pilot navigated toward a nearby field to make an off-airport landing. During the landing, he saw a deep ditch and a house, so he attempted to ground loop the airplane to the left. Both wings impacted trees. The airplane sustained substantial damage to both wings. The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. The pilot reported as a safety recommendation that adding a fuel stop would have prevented the accident. The Federal Aviation Administrator inspector who examined the airplane reported that the nose tank had evidence of fuel being in it recently (the indicator cork was still wet with fuel), but no fuel remained in the tank. Both the right and left wing tanks were examined, and no fuel remained in either tank. No evidence of a fuel spill was found on the airplane or the ground. 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-Pilot - C
• C Environmental issues-Physical environment-Object/animal/substance-Tree(s)-Effect on operation - C