NYC04LA041 · Russell Cozy MK III

The pilot performed a preflight inspection on the airplane during which he determined there was about 15 gallons of fuel in both the right and left fuel tank. He selected the right tank for takeoff, flew for 24 miles, and then switched to the left fuel tank for the 36-mile return flight. When he was about 20 miles from the airport, the pilot began a descent and selected the right fuel tank again. At this time he believed that the right fuel tank had 15 gallons of fuel remaining, and the left tank had 12 gallons of fuel. While descending, the pilot turned on the fuel boost pump, noticed a slight engine vibration, followed by a loss of engine power. The pilot then performed a forced landing to a road, during which the airplane impacted two homes. Examination of the airplane by a Federal Aviation Administration inspector revealed approximately 15 gallons of fuel in the right tank, and 2 gallons of fuel in the left tank; however, both fuel tanks were compromised. The engine was test run on the airframe, using the original fuel system. The engine started without hesitation and ran continuously through a variety of power settings, with no abnormalities noted. The pilot reported that the airplane was last fueled about 2 months prior to the accident, which filled the tanks to their 52-gallon capacity. Since then, he flew one 25 minute flight, and performed about 80 minutes of ground runs prior to the accident flight. According to the Lycoming O-360 Operator's Manual, the fuel burn at 75 percent power was approximately 10.5 gallons per hour, and at 65 percent power was approximately 9 gallons per hour.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset