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WPR20CA299

2020-09-06 · Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, United States · Minor · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport COE

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot's inadequate fuel planning, which resulted in a loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion and a collision with trees and terrain.

Factual narrative

The pilot reported that during a cross-country flight at dusk, the airplane encountered greater head winds than planned. The pilot made several engine power and mixture adjustments to compensate for the increased wind velocity and to maintain altitude. About 15 miles prior to reaching the destination airport, the engine lost power. He attempted to troubleshoot the loss of engine power to no avail and initiated a forced landing. The airplane collided with trees and came to rest inverted. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the wings, the fuselage and empennage. The pilot believed that his fuel planning for the accident flight was insufficient, which resulted in fuel exhaustion. The pilot reported that there were no mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.  Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12

NTSB Findings

FAA avdata. C = Cause, F = Factor.

  • C Personnel issues-Task performance-Planning/preparation-Fuel planning-Pilot
  • C Environmental issues-Physical environment-Object/animal/substance-Tree(s)-Effect on operation
  • — Aircraft-Fluids/misc hardware-Fluids-Fuel-Fluid level

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2020_WPR20CA299.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 (fuel exhaustion). All research papers