A small plane that picked up passengers in Gainesville and made a crash landing in a field near Tampa, Florida, last November was out of fuel went it went down, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said in a recently released preliminary report on the incident.
The report says the flight originated in Talladega, Alabama, on Nov. 23. It later landed at Lee Gilmer Memorial Airport in Gainesville, to pick up two passengers, and departed the next morning about 11:00, headed to Lakeland, Florida.
“Throughout the flight, the pilot monitored fuel consumption using the fuel gauges and switched fuel tanks every 30 minutes,” the report says. About 3 hours into the flight…the airplane experienced a partial loss of engine power.
“The pilot switched fuel tanks and activated the electric fuel pump, and engine power was
restored. The pilot contacted air traffic control and was advised that Brooksville-Tampa Bay
Regional Airport (BKV), Tampa, Florida, was about 3 miles ahead. (But) shortly thereafter, the engine
experienced a total loss of power. Unable to restore power, he declared an emergency and
performed a forced landing in a field.”
During the landing, with the landing gear retracted, the right wing and right stabilator impacted a fence before the airplane came to rest in a grassy field about two miles northwest of the Tampa airport.
“Photographs taken by a Hernando County Sheriff’s Office deputy showed substantial damage
to the right stabilator. The photographs also indicated that no fuel was visible in the fuel tanks.”