MIA93LA037 · BUNN, Richard B. SWEARINGEN SX300 SWEARINGEN
BUNN, Richard B. SWEARINGEN SX300 SWEARINGEN · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) on approach
From Wellington Aero Club Airport (FD38) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA93LA037
- 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
BUNN, Richard B. SWEARINGEN SX300 SWEARINGEN
- Aircraft type
- Bunn Richard SWEARINGEN SX300
- 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
- N336SX
- Operator
- Bunn, Richard B. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Wellington Aero Club Airport (FD38), West Palm Beach, FLTo 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 · IFR final approach
- 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 (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Fuel system, tank › Leak
- Pilot in command › Operation with known deficiencies in equipment, performed
- Pilot in command › Refueling, not performed
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Montgomery, AL, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT FILLED THE FUEL TANKS THE DAY BEFORE THE ACCIDENT FLIGHT AND FLEW AN UNKNOWN LENGTH OF TIME BACK TO HIS HOME AIRPORT. THE PILOT THEN FLEW FOR 3.0 HOURS ACCORDING TO THE AIRCRAFT'S HOBBS METER ON THE DAY OF THE ACCIDENT, PRIOR TO ENGINE FAILURE. JUST BEFORE THE ENGINE FAILURE THE PILOT REPORTED TO ATC A LOW FUEL STATE, AND AS THE ENGINE WAS FAILING THE PILOT REPORTED 'I AM RUNNING OUT OF FUEL.' THE RESCUE PERSONNEL WHO FIRST ARRIVED AT THE SCENE REPORTED THERE WAS NO FUEL LEAKAGE, FUEL ODOR, OR FUEL IN THE AIRCRAFT'S FUEL TANKS. EXAMINATION OF THE AIRCRAFT BY FAA INSPECTORS REVEALED THE RIGHT AND LEFT WINGS HAD VISIBLE FUEL LEAKS AND FRESH SEALANT WAS VISIBLE IN ATTEMPTS TO STOP THE LEAKS. ACCORDING TO THE AIRCRAFT KIT MANUFACTURER THE AIRCRAFT HAS A NORMAL ENDURANCE OF ABOUT 4 HOURS.
Probable cause
THE PILOT IN COMMAND'S DECISION TO OPERATE THE AIRCRAFT WITH KNOWN FUEL LEAKS AND HIS FAILURE TO MONITOR FUEL QUANTITY EN ROUTE WHICH RESULTED IN LOSS OF ENGINE POWER DUE TO FUEL EXHAUSTION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA93LA037
- Event ID
- 20001211X16214
- Case number
- MIA93LA037
- 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: ad36224e18bcd99ff0132cacee85ca3aaaab9a0eb06a1adf73dff8c948c4f2ba; retrieved 2026-09-21T14:36:25.810Z.