SEA05LA127 · Cessna 182A

The airplane lost engine power and collided with terrain during the forced landing. Prior to the second flight of the day the pilot fueled the airplane's right wing with approximately 8 gallons of fuel, bringing the total fuel load for the flight to approximately 20 or 21 gallons. The operator of the skydiving operation said that he instructed his pilots to fuel the aircraft after each flight to 21 gallons for a load of 3 or 4 people, and to 19 gallons for a load of 2 people. The accident flight consisted of the pilot and three people; a videographer, and tandem jumper, and a tandem instructor. In an interview with an FAA inspector, the videographer confirmed having witnessed the pilot refuel and "stick" the airplane's fuel tanks prior to departing on the accident flight. Subsequently, the videographer recanted his statement and said that he only witnessed the pilot "stick" the fuel tanks, but he did not observe him fuel the airplane. After deploying the jumpers the pilot commenced a descent with a turn to the right, setting the power to 16 inches of manifold pressure and the propeller to 2,250 rpm. The airplane subsequently experienced a loss of engine power, which resulted in the pilot making a forced landing to an open field. During the forced landing attempt the aircraft impacted a set of transmission wires prior to impacting terrain and nosing over. As a result of a concussion he suffered during the accident, the pilot had no recollection of the flight for approximately 7 to 10 minutes immediately prior to the crash. A post-accident examination of the aircraft by an FAA inspector revealed that the right wing contained approximately 1 to 3 gallons of fuel, while the left wing contained about 5 to 7 gallons of fuel. The throttle, mixture and propeller controls were full forward, the carburetor heat was FULL ON, and the fuel selector was positioned to BOTH. A salvage company, who recovered the airplane four days after the accident, reported that during recovery operations approximately 5 gallons of fuel was drained from the left fuel tank, while the right fuel tank was found to be void of any fuel. An examination of the engine and airframe failed to reveal any anomalies, which would have precluded normal operation of the aircraft.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset