FTW02LA018 · Piper PA-30
Piper PA-30 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Quahadi Ranch Airport (17XS) to San Angelo Regional Mathis Field (SJT)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW02LA018
- 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
- Unknown
- 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-30
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-30
- 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
- N8642Y
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Quahadi Ranch Airport (17XS), Lajitas, TXTo San Angelo Regional Mathis Field (SJT), San Angelo, 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 · 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
- 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; Wire, transmission
- 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 › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › Refueling, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During dark night light conditions, the pilot landed the airplane on an unlighted runway, taxied to the ramp, boarded the passengers, and taxied for the departure flight. The pilot had not refueled the airplane en route and fuel was not available at this airport. En route at 9,500 msl, the pilot requested and received VFR flight following to the planned refueling destination. Subsequently, the pilot decided to land the airplane for refueling at an en route airport. The pilot reported that he tried to activate the non-towered airport's runway lights and "there were no lights or rotating beacon operating at the airport." After approximately 20-30 minutes of flying over the town and looking for the airport, the left engine lost power, and the pilot feathered the left engine. Subsequently, the right engine lost power. The pilot performed the emergency landing procedures to a vacant lot, and during the approach, the airplane struck power lines. The pilot reported dark night light conditions, clear skies, visibility 30 miles with no restrictions to visibility, and calm wind. No evidence of fuel was found in either the area surrounding the accident site or in the aircraft's fuel tanks. No mechanical discrepancies were found that indicated the engines were incapable of producing power prior to the impact. A preset timer operates the runway lights at the low intensity and the taxiway lights; however, the intensity of the runway lights may be changed when the pilot keys the airplane microphone over the CTAF. Witnesses, the acting airport manager, and the FAA reported the runway lights and the rotating beacon were operational.
Probable cause
The loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion resulting from the pilot's failure to refuel the airplane. Contributing factors were the lack of suitable terrain for the forced landing and the dark night conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW02LA018
- Event ID
- 20011026X02151
- Case number
- FTW02LA018
- 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, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2001-10-20.
- API snapshot SHA-256: ac96081315e62b9678c54a4748a0847eca343a30ec589e850dee0346cb8cbd2e; retrieved 2026-09-21T09:46:02.575Z.