Skip to content

MIA89GA082

1989-02-08 · MELBOURNE, Florida, United States · Minor · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport MLB

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO ACCURATELY DETERMINE FUEL QUANTITY PRIOR TO DEPARTURE FOLLOWED BY HIS FAILURE TO OPERATE THE ENGINE ON THE FULLEST FUEL TANK RESULTING IN A FUEL TANK BEING RUN DRY RESULTING IN ENGINE FAILURE WHILE ON SHORT FINAL APPROACH AT HIS DESTINATION.

Factual narrative

THE ACFT WAS BEING FERRIED TO MELBOURNE BY A CONTRACTOR TO THE US MARSHALS SERVICE. BEFORE DEPARTURE INSPECTION AND ENGINE RUN-UP REVEALED A 500-600 RPM MAGNETO DROP; THE LEFT TANK WAS 3/4 FULL AND THE RIGHT TANK HAD APPROX 15 GALLONS OF FUEL, ACCORDING TO GAUGES. THE PLT HAD WORK DONE THAT REDUCED THE MAG DROP TO 200-250 RPM. THE PLT REPORTED THAT WHILE ON A 3-MILE FINAL TO RWY 4 AT MELBOURNE, THE ENGINE QUIT. HE SAID HE SWITCHED THE SELECTOR TO THE OTHER TANK. THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH TREES AND THE GROUND DURING A FORCED LANDING. THE FUEL SELECTOR WAS FOUND IN THE LEFT TANK POSITION. NO FUEL SYSTEM LEAKS WERE EVIDENT. FURTHER EXAMINATION REVEALED 3 OZ OF FUEL IN THE RT TANK; THE LEFT TANK CONTAINED 25 GALLONS BUT APPEARED TO BE 3/4 FULL. THE RT FUEL GAUGE WAS ACCURATE AND THE LEFT READ LOW WHEN TESTED. THE RT MAG DROP WAS 700 RPM DRG A TEST-RUN. THE RT MAG IMPULSE SPRING WAS BROKEN, ALLOWING INTERNAL TIMING TO VARY. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1989_MIA89GA082.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.

Related research

Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (engine failure). All research papers