DEN04LA082 · Lockheed TV-2
Lockheed TV-2 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during an emergency descent
From Salina Municipal Airport (SLN) to Centennial Airport (APA)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN04LA082
- 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
Lockheed TV-2
- Aircraft type
- Lockheed TV-2
- 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
- N6617
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Salina Municipal Airport (SLN), Salina, KSTo Centennial Airport (APA), Denver, CO
- 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
- Emergency descent
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to the pilot, at approximately 45 nautical miles southeast of his intended destination, the wing tip tank low fuel light illuminated. He stated that this was planned, and he selected the 150-gallon wing tank. Approximately two minutes later, the low fuel light illuminated for the wing tank. A "drop," in the fuel quantity indication on the main fuselage tank gauge, confirmed the wing tanks low fuel condition. He then selected the 100-gallon leading edge tank, and within a few minutes, its low fuel light illuminated as well. Again, he noted a "drop" in the fuel quantity indication on the main fuselage tank gauge, confirming the leading edge tanks low fuel condition. The pilot immediately contacted the local Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC), reported a "fuel emergency," and stated that he was going to make a precautionary landing at a nearby dirt strip. Upon landing, he retracted the flaps and applied full brakes; however, the airplane departed the end of the runway, struck a ditch, and slid approximately 400 feet, coming to a stop in an open field. The impact with the ditch collapsed and separated both main landing gear assemblies from the wing spar. The airplane sustained substantial damage to both wing spars and the lower aft fuselage. According to the pilot, the airplane departed with approximately 700 gallons of fuel. Prior to evacuating the airplane, he noted that the main fuselage tank gauge indicated approximately 68 gallons of fuel. During an examination of the wreckage, approximately 56 gallons of fuel was recovered. According to a maintenance representative, no aircraft anomalies were noted. However, a stuck fuel tank float valve would allow fuel to "drain out of the saber vents at approximately 30 gallons per minute." The representative also stated that, the calculated fuel loss, from the moment the fuel pumps were turned on to the moment the tanks indicated empty, correlated to the amount of unaccountable fuel.
Probable cause
the failure of the fuel tank float which resulted in the draining of fuel out the vents, and a low fuel supply. Contributing factors include the insufficient runway length, the ditch, and the rough, uneven terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN04LA082
- Event ID
- 20040616X00804
- Case number
- DEN04LA082
- 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 2004-05-29.
- API snapshot SHA-256: e0f9a02107fe0f902bfc7a9155100b10a725383a9e8996e5350b6938660da690; retrieved 2026-09-22T07:26:51.612Z.