ANC93LA146 · Piper PA-31-350
Marc Aviation Piper PA-31-350 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From GAMBLE, AK to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC93LA146
- 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
Piper PA-31-350
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-31
- 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
- N6SF
- Operator
- Marc Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From GAMBLE, AKTo 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
- En route · cruise
- 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 exhaustion
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE BUSINESS FLIGHT DEPARTED LAVRENTLYA, RUSSIA WITH WHAT THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND ESTIMATED TO BE 50 GALLONS OF USABLE FUEL ON BOARD THE AIRPLANE AND LANDED IN PROVIDENIYA, RUSSIA AROUND 40 MINUTES LATER WITH ABOUT 30 GALLONS OF FUEL REMAINING. THE PLANE TOOK ON AN ADDITIONAL 30 GALLONS OF FUEL. THE PILOT SAID THAT HE NORMALLY DEPARTED PROVIDENIYA WITH 120 GALLONS OF FUEL BUT THAT THERE WAS NO ADDITIONAL FUEL AVAILABLE. THE FLIGHT DEPARTED PROVIDENIYA WITH WHAT THE PILOT ESTIMATED TO BE 1 HOUR AND 45 MINUTES OF FUEL ENDURANCE AND LANDED IN GAMBLE, ALASKA ON ST LAWRENCE ISLAND APPROXIMATELY 25 MINUTES LATER. THE PILOT DID NOT DIP STICK THE FUEL TANKS TO VERIFY THE AMOUNT OF FUEL ON BOARD. THE PILOT DID NOT CHECK ON THE AVAILABILITY OF FUEL IN GAMBLE. THE RIGHT AND LEFT ENGINES LOST POWER APPROXIMATELY 40 MINUTES AND 50 MINUTES, RESPECTIVELY AFTER DEPARTING GAMBLE. THE AIRPLANE DID NOT CARRY PERSONAL FLOTATION DEVICES FOR THE PASSENGERS.
Probable cause
FUEL EXHAUSTION DUE TO THE PILOT IN COMMANDS IMPROPER PREFLIGHT PLANNING/PREPARATION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC93LA146
- Event ID
- 20001211X13035
- Case number
- ANC93LA146
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1993-08-14.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 2989ac1a88d10a93888f5a1c9fb7828d898007086eb1074434a95141114b542e; retrieved 2026-09-23T01:44:55.546Z.