FTW00LA170 · Aero Commander 700
Aero Commander 700 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Sierra Blanca Regional Airport (SRR) to Stephens County Airport (BKD)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW00LA170
- 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
Aero Commander 700
- Aircraft type
- Aero Commander 700
- 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
- N700AF
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sierra Blanca Regional Airport (SRR), Ruidoso, NMTo Stephens County Airport (BKD), Breckenridge, TX
- 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
- 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)
- 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
- Fuel system › Exhaustion
- Fuel system, fuel quantity float/sensor › Inaccurate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to the pilot, the flight departed with the fuel quantity gauges indicating 350-360 pounds of fuel in each fuel tank. Approximately 15 minutes from the destination, the fuel low light illuminated with an indication of approximately 100 pounds of fuel in each fuel tank. According to the aircraft manufacturer, the fuel low light should illuminate when there are 63 pounds of fuel remaining. When the flight was 5-10 miles from the airport, the fuel low light went out and the left engine lost power. The pilot turned the fuel boost pumps to high and noted that the fuel quantity gauges were indicating 50 pounds of fuel in each fuel tank. The pilot then opened the crossfeed valve and the left engine regained power. Shortly thereafter, both engines started to lose power. The pilot landed the airplane in a field; however, he could not stop the airplane before it impacted a barbed wire fence and mesquite trees. The pilot stated that the flight lasted 2 hours and 15 minutes. At a best power (76% BHP) fuel flow rate of 130 pounds/hour, each engine would have used approximately 292.5 pounds of fuel. Assuming each fuel tank contained 350 pounds of fuel at the start of the flight, this would leave approximately 57.5 pounds of fuel in each fuel tank, allowing for 26 minutes of flight time.
Probable cause
Fuel exhaustion as a result of an inaccurate fuel quantity indicating system. A factor was the lack of suitable terrain for the forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW00LA170
- Event ID
- 20001212X21223
- Case number
- FTW00LA170
- 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 2000-06-05.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 9bf5593649e3f977a368e87aca1b49fef883e56269643472965bfe5ba907c24f; retrieved 2026-09-22T12:50:05.662Z.