NTSB CAROL · Event
Event WPR23LA318
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot's improper fuel management, which resulted in fuel starvation, and gear up landing on a dirt airstrip.
Factual narrative
The pilot of the airplane reported that, while enroute, the engine was running rough and the airplane subsequently lost power. His attempts to restore power were unsuccessful. Due to high airspeed and low altitude the pilot elected to land gear up on a dirt airstrip which resulted in substantial damage to the underside of the airplane. Postaccident examination revealed 18 gallons of fuel in the right fuel tank and the left fuel tank was void of fuel; neither fuel tank was breached. The operator of the airplane reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures 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).
- — Environmental issues-Physical environment-Terrain-Rough terrain-Contributed to outcome
- — Aircraft-Fluids/misc hardware-Fluids-Fuel-Fluid management
- — Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Use of equip/system-Pilot
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2023_WPR23LA318.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 starvation). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.
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