GAA19CA070 · Cessna T337 G
Cessna T337 G · Accident: fuel exhaustion en route
From Frederick W. Smith International Airport (MEM) to Brooksville–Tampa Bay Regional Airport (BKV)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA19CA070
- 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 T337 G
- 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
- N1ZR
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Frederick W. Smith International Airport (MEM), Memphis, TNTo Brooksville–Tampa Bay Regional Airport (BKV), Brooksville, FL
- Aircraft age
- About 41 years (built 1977)
- 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
- En route
- 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
The pilot reported that, 2 days before the accident flight, the multiengine airplane's fuel tanks were filled (150 gallons). During the taxi to the runway, the right main tire blew. During recovery, the right side of the airplane was placed on a dolly to support the gear so that the airplane could be towed. The pilot reported that, due to the airplane’s fuel system design, when one side of the airplane was raised, all the fuel could be transferred to the opposite tank, which then forced the fuel to be released out of the air vent line.
On the day of the accident, the pilot completed his preflight inspection and visually confirmed the fuel quantity by checking both fuel gauges, which were "green"; however, he did not verify the fuel onboard by checking the tanks. About 3 hours into the flight, the rear engine lost power. Before the pilot attempted to restart the rear engine and after he verified the correct engine to feather, the front engine also lost power. When the pilot realized the airplane would be unable to reach the nearest airport, he landed it in a grass marsh with the landing gear retracted. During the landing, the airplane’s wing hit grass and then veered right about 90°, which caused the left wing to dip and impact terrain.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the left aileron and empennage.
The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
During his preflight inspection, the pilot should have verified the fuel quantity in the fuel tanks to ensure there was sufficient fuel onboard for the flight, and his failure to do so led to fuel exhaustion and the subsequent total loss of power in both engines.
Probable cause
The pilot's inadequate preflight inspection, which resulted in fuel exhaustion and the subsequent total loss of power in both engines.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA19CA070
- Event ID
- 20181108X40245
- Case number
- GAA19CA070
- 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: 9d5f48bd36c16bc01b5c552679d08eac17e5fab05cfabaf09aa639818d862f23; retrieved 2026-09-16T08:25:18.101Z.