NYC94FA064 · Swearingen SA-26AT
Swearingen SA-26AT · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From IAD · Washington, DC to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC94FA064
- 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
- 1 · 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
Swearingen SA-26AT
- Aircraft type
- Swearingen SA-26
- 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
- N20PT
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From IAD · Washington, DCTo 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
- Partial 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; Stall/mush; 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Directional control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Emergency procedure, improper
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Operation with known deficiencies in equipment, performed
- Pilot in command › Stall/mush, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE ON APP AT NIGHT, IN VMC, THE LEFT ENG LOST PWR DUE TO FUEL STARVATION. THE PROP WAS NOT FEATHERED, THE L/G WAS LEFT DOWN, AND THE A/C DRIFTED LEFT OF CRS, STRUCK TREES, AND THEN THE GND. ONE GAL OF FUEL WAS DRAINED FROM THE RT WING, ENG, & FUEL LINE. NO FUEL WAS FOUND IN THE LT WING, ENG & FUEL LINE. THE CO-PILOT SAID THE FUEL QTY SYS WAS ERRATIC WITH THE LT SIDE MORE ERRATIC, AND THE RT SIDE READING ABOUT 10 GAL MORE THAN THE LT SIDE. TESTING FOUND THE RT SIDE INDICATED ABOUT 45 GAL MORE THAN WAS PRESENT WHILE THE LT SIDE WAS INOP. THERE WAS NO REQUIREMENT FOR PERIODIC RECALIBRAION OF THE FUEL QTY SYSTEM. THE OWNER/PILOT HAD OPERATED THE A/C ON 32 FLTS, OVER 23 HRS, AND REFUELED 23 TIMES USING PARTIAL FILLS, SINCE HE HAD FULL TANKS. THE PILOT WAS CHECKED OUT 17 MONTHS PRIOR AND THE INSTR SAID THE PILOT WAS FINE, HOWEVER, HE WAS CAUTIONED HIM TO ENROLL IN RECURRENT TRAINING. THERE WAS NO RECORD HE DID. THE PILOT HAD RECEIVED AN FAA CHECKRIDE 19 MONTHS PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT, WHICH HE PASSED.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S DECISION TO OPERATE THE AIRPLANE WITH KNOWN DEFICIENCIES IN THE FUEL QUANTITY MEASURING SYSTEM WHICH RESULTED IN A POWER LOSS DUE TO FUEL STARVATION, FOLLOWED BY IMPROPER EMERGENCY PROCEDURES WHICH RESULTED IN A LOSS OF CONTROL INFLIGHT AND UNCONTROLLED CONTACT WITH THE GROUND. FACTORS WERE THE LACK OF A REQUIREMENT FOR PERIODIC CALIBRATION OF THE FUEL QUANTITY MEASURING SYSTEM FROM THE MANUFACTURER, AND THE ERRATIC AND INACCURATE FUEL QUANTITY MEASURING SYSTEM.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC94FA064
- Event ID
- 20001206X00972
- Case number
- NYC94FA064
- 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: 8a04b66250549e46012306fb07da9e770a87977d671be1c63f1a939e91b81fe9; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:13:04.073Z.