IAD99LA031 · Gulfstream American AA-5B
Gulfstream American AA-5B · Accident: loss of engine power on approach
From Hawthorne Feather Airpark (8B1) to an unrecorded destination
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- IAD99LA031
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Gulfstream American AA-5B
- Aircraft type
- Gulfstream American AA-5
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N4524Y
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Possible conflict
- From Hawthorne Feather Airpark (8B1), HILLSBORO, NHTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Loss of engine power
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Fuel starvation; Tree(s)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Fuel management, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Sanford, ME, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
The pilot was on a local flight to demonstrate the airplane to someone interested in purchasing the same make and model. While on final approach, the airplane lost power and came to rest suspended in a tree during the subsequent forced landing. The Fire Chief responded to the scene. He said, 'The nose was straight down in the trees. The fuel was dripping from the right wing, whether it was running from the left side and dripping from the right, I can't tell you.' Examination of the airplane by a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Airworthiness Inspector revealed the left fuel tank was compromised during the accident sequence. The right fuel tank was intact and contained no fuel. The airplane's engine started and ran on the airframe utilizing the airplane's own fuel system. The pilot said that a review of his records revealed the airplane had flown approximately 2-2.5 hours since the last fuel service. The pilot estimated his fuel burn rate averaged 10 gallons per hour. The airplane had a fuel capacity of 26 gallons per wing tank for a total of 52 gallons.
Probable cause
The pilot mismanaged his fuel supply which led to fuel starvation and subsequent loss of engine power.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record IAD99LA031
- Event ID
- 20001205X00173
- Case number
- IAD99LA031
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 5fdcec683044bd11b2b6439f6be088319bdd09c7bb9976c2e83374aecaaadec3; retrieved 2026-09-22T15:48:05.733Z.