WPR14CA389 · Piper PA25 - 260
Arco Flight International Piper PA25 - 260 · Accident: fuel exhaustion while maneuvering
From Kawaihapai Airfield (HDH) to Kawaihapai Airfield (HDH)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's location. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR14CA389
- 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
Piper PA25 - 260
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA25
- 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
- N8555L
- Operator
- Arco Flight International
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Kawaihapai Airfield (HDH), Mokuleia, HITo Kawaihapai Airfield (HDH), Mokuleia, HI
- Aircraft age
- About 46 years (built 1968)
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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 exhaustion
- 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
Prior to the glider tow flight, the pilot estimated that he had about 45 minutes of fuel on board; he also estimated that the flight would take about 12 minutes. The pilot reported that he did not visually check the fuel level prior to departing, but relied on the sight gauge. After releasing the glider and while in the descent, the engine lost power. Judging that he could not make the airport, the pilot landed just off shore in the ocean surf. A postaccident examination of the engine and propeller revealed no apparent damage to the propeller, and that when rotated there were no abnormal sounds detected from the engine. An examination of the airframe revealed that both ailerons were damaged, the fuselage was deformed, and the rudder was damaged. Additionally, when the fuel tank was inspected, which had not been breached, it was observed to be empty. The pilot reported no preimpact mechanical malfunction or failure that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper preflight planning and reliance of fuel gauge readings, which resulted in a loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR14CA389
- Event ID
- 20140926X23504
- Case number
- WPR14CA389
- 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: 1e848b760307b594c27a427ce62d5c4c32f1be4a288a7bcc3c63ad1ed449eb19; retrieved 2026-09-16T01:48:21.092Z.