NTSB CAROL · Event
Event WPR21LA022
Registry · N98615
FAA Aircraft Registry record.
Make / Model
PIPER J3C-65
Year of manufacture
1946 · 74 years old at event
Engine
CONT MOTOR A&C65 SERIES (65 hp)
Seats / Engines
2 seats · 1 engine
Last airworthiness date
19590507
ADS-B equipped
Yes — Mode-S ADC407
Registrant of record
WELLS CHARLES H
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot's inadequate preflight inspection and fuel planning which resulted in a total loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion.
Factual narrative
The pilot reported that during the preflight he checked the fuel sight gauges and he believed that both fuel tanks were full. After flying for about an hour, he returned to the airport for a straight in approach and noticed that the fuel might be near exhaustion since he could not see the float at the bottom of the sight glass. While on a 2-mile final approach, the engine lost power. The pilot subsequently initiated a forced landing to an unoccupied school playground. During the landing roll, the pilot intentionally ground looped the airplane to prevent hitting a chain link fence, however, the right wing collided with the fence and was substantially damaged. The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failure or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. 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).
- — Personnel issues-Task performance-Inspection-Preflight inspection-Pilot
- — Personnel issues-Task performance-Planning/preparation-Flight planning/navigation-Pilot
- — Aircraft-Fluids/misc hardware-Fluids-Fuel-Fluid level
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2020_WPR21LA022.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.
- 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),…
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Abstract
U.S. Civil Rotorcraft Accidents, 1963 through 1997
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has recorded 8,436 rotorcraft accidents during the period mid - 1963 through the end of 1997.
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Contractor Report (CR)
A study of carburetor/induction system icing in general aviation accidents
An assessment of the frequency and severity of carburetor/induction icing in general-aviation accidents was performed. The available literature and accident data from the National Transportation Safet…
- NASA NTRS 2018 · Other
Parachuting to Safety
NASA's Langley Research Center awarded Ballistic Recovery Systems, Inc., three Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contracts to research and develop a new, low cost, lightweight recovery system …
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗