ANC99LA030 · Interstate S-1B1
Interstate S-1B1 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Merrill Field (MRI) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC99LA030
- 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
Interstate S-1B1
- Aircraft type
- Interstate S-1
- 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
- N48027
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Merrill Field (MRI)To 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 turn to base
- 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
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- 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 tank selector position, improper
- Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, not understood
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
While approaching the airport, the airplane's engine lost power. The pilot applied carburetor heat with no response. He intentionally ensured the fuel valve was selected to the 'left main' position, because he knew there was about five gallons of fuel in that tank. The right tank was empty. The fuel system in the left tank has two outlet standpipes. The 'left main' loses suction with about five gallons remaining. The 'reserve' standpipe allows these remaining five gallons to flow out of the tank when 'reserve' is selected on the fuel valve. The pilot told the NTSB investigator-in-charge (IIC) he did not understand the plumbing for the fuel system. The pilot performed a forced landing at an off airport site. The NTSB IIC confirmed that there was fuel in the left tank, and only a trace of fuel in the right tank.
Probable cause
Fuel starvation resulting from the pilot not understanding the fuel system procedures, and selecting the improper fuel selector position.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC99LA030
- Event ID
- 20001205X00246
- Case number
- ANC99LA030
- 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: 3c2b24768cf24619c7b16c82da93a3ea3fee82dce9c9a249992867cfb969e50f; retrieved 2026-09-21T20:35:43.715Z.