DFW05CA128 · Bellanca 17-30A
Bellanca 17-30A · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Corpus Christie, TX to West Houston Airport (IWS)
Event
- NTSB case
- DFW05CA128
- 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
Bellanca 17-30A
- Aircraft type
- Bellanca 17
- 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
- N39821
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Corpus Christie, TXTo West Houston Airport (IWS), Houston, 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)
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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 › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Fuel management, improper
- Pilot in command › Fuel supply, inattentive
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Before the 470-hour private pilot departed on a night cross-country flight, he performed a preflight inspection of the airplane, but he did not visually check the fuel quantity in each of the four wing fuel tanks. However, the fuel gauges indicated that the tanks were full for a total of 72 gallons. The 1-hour and 15-minute flight was normal until the airplane was on final approach to the destination airport. At an altitude of 800 feet above ground level, the engine stopped producing power and the pilot made a forced landing to a golf course. Examination of the airplane revealed that four wing fuel tanks were intact, and there was no fuel in the left wing tanks or the right main tank. However, the right auxiliary tank was full. The main fuel selector handle was found set to the RIGHT MAIN tank, and the auxiliary fuel selector handle was found set to the FUSELAGE position. In addition, there was no evidence of any fuel spillage or spoilage of vegetation on or around the airplane. Due to the extent of impact damage, the fuel system could not be pressurized and checked for leaks.
Probable cause
The pilot's mismanagement of the fuel and his inadequate monitoring of the fuel supply which resulted in fuel starvation.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DFW05CA128
- Event ID
- 20050630X00908
- Case number
- DFW05CA128
- 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 2005-05-22.
- API snapshot SHA-256: aa8b5210530992bc977550ab1cd2c14d8552e9496cdb2ee8ebced89b77e0ecf8; retrieved 2026-09-21T09:07:34.656Z.