CEN10CA305 · Cessna 337
Cessna 337 · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) during initial climb
From Custer County Airport (KCUT) to Custer County Airport (KCUT)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN10CA305
- 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
Cessna 337
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 337
- 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
- N2267X
- Operator
- Grover D. Fulkerson · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Custer County Airport (KCUT), Custer, SDTo Custer County Airport (KCUT), Custer, SD
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Loss of engine power (partial)
- 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
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The accident occurred during the first flight since an annual inspection was performed on the airplane. The pilot reported that the airplane was last fueled approximately 5 months before the accident flight, at which time the fuel tanks were topped-off. According to the pilot, after being refueled the airplane was flown about 30 minutes to the accident airport where the annual inspection was performed. The Inspector Authorization (IA) mechanic who performed the annual inspection stated that he ran the engines for about 30 minutes before the annual and about 40 minutes after the inspection was completed. The IA mechanic did not refuel the airplane after the annual inspection. The pilot told a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspector that he did not visually check the fuel tank levels before the accident flight. The pilot stated that after takeoff he remained in the traffic pattern and performed a full stop landing. He then back-taxied on the runway before his next takeoff. After the second takeoff, during initial climb, the pilot noticed that the rear engine was losing power. He applied full power to the forward engine and was able to maintain sufficient altitude to clear a tree line, but the airplane was losing airspeed. He then performed an off-field landing approximately 4 miles from the departure airport. The airplane landed in a soft field, during which the landing gear collapsed and the fuselage, left wing, and left stabilizer were substantially damaged. The pilot stated that after the accident he visually inspected the right main fuel tank and found it empty. He indicated that he had been running the rear engine on the right main fuel tank during the accident flight. A postaccident inspection by a FAA inspector revealed the left main and left auxiliary fuel tanks contained 14 gallons and 17 gallons, respectively. The right main and right auxiliary fuel tanks contained 3 ounces and 3 gallons, respectively. The fuel selectors were all found turned off at the accident site. The rear engine was started and operated between an idle power setting and 1,500 rpm without anomalies. The engine responded to throttle inputs and both of its magnetos were operational during the test run.
Probable cause
A partial loss of engine power due to fuel starvation as a result of the pilot's inadequate fuel mismanagement.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN10CA305
- Event ID
- 20100607X83625
- Case number
- CEN10CA305
- 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: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 80ed1bc8a59413b8c620da985b61284960fa0e59d911b3b75f2e9bda7e6a387f; retrieved 2026-09-15T14:23:31.595Z.