WPR09CA092 · Ryan NAVION
Ryan NAVION · Accident: fuel starvation on approach
From Northeast Wyoming Regional Airport (GCC) to Three Forks Airport (9S5)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR09CA092
- 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
Ryan NAVION
- Aircraft type
- Ryan NAVION
- 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
- N4443K
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Narrative disagrees
- From Northeast Wyoming Regional Airport (GCC), Gillette-Campbe, WYTo Three Forks Airport (9S5), Three Forks, MT
- 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
- Defining eventThe 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
- Fuel starvation
- 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
- Aircraft › Fluids/miscellaneous hardware
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that prior to departure he noted that both wing tip tanks were full of fuel and that the main tank was at least 2/3 full, giving adequate fuel for the flight. After takeoff, the pilot repositioned the fuel selector to draw fuel from the right tip tank, and later, while en route, the pilot switched the fuel selector to the left tip tank. Approaching the destination airport, the pilot became somewhat distracted while talking with a passenger. He did not follow the prelanding checklist and failed to reposition the fuel selector to the main tank, which contained adequate fuel. When the airplane was about 2.5 miles from the airport, all engine power was lost. The pilot then repositioned the fuel selector to draw fuel from the main tank; however, engine power was not restored as the airplane descended from the traffic pattern. The pilot made a forced landing on the underlying rough terrain. During roll out, the airplane collided with vegetation and a wing broke.
Probable cause
A total loss of engine power due to fuel starvation as a result of the pilot's inadequate fuel system management. Contributing to the accident were the pilot's diverted attention and failure to perform the prelanding checklist.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR09CA092
- Event ID
- 20090119X34648
- Case number
- WPR09CA092
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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 2009-01-19.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 168aba4a9d4f7420b3a8c3e69c38b06c080d624ffd21c9cb36b8a36328148889; retrieved 2026-09-15T10:42:04.246Z.