CEN22LA134 · Cessna 208B
Revolution Flight Cessna 208B · Accident: fuel exhaustion while maneuvering
From San Marcos Regional Airport (HYI) to Pleasanton Municipal Airport (PEZ)
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
- CEN22LA134
- 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
- Event fatalities
- Unknown
- 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 208B
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 208
- 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
- N108RF
- Operator
- Revolution Flight
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Possible conflict
- From San Marcos Regional Airport (HYI), Austin, TXTo Pleasanton Municipal Airport (PEZ), Pleasanton, TX
- Aircraft age
- About 26 years (built 1996)
- 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 › Psychological
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that after about 3 hours of total flight time, he proceeded to a nearby airport for fuel. During the descent, the “left fuel low” light illuminated and, shortly thereafter, the “reservoir fuel low” light illuminated. The pilot ensured the fuel tanks, fuel pump, and igniters were on, and he diverted to a nearby private strip. Soon after, the airplane’s engine began to lose power. The pilot increased the throttle, but the engine lost total power. The airplane descended rapidly and struck several trees before touching down on an upsloping field short of the runway. The pilot reported after the accident that he last refueled the airplane the day before the accident at Ozona Municipal Airport (OZA). He then flew the airplane a little over 1 hour to the departure airport to prepare for the accident flight. When asked if the airplane ran out of fuel, the pilot replied “no, I should have had more fuel.”
During an on-scene examination, the airplane’s electrical system was turned on and the “LT fuel low,” “RT fuel low,” and “reservoir fuel low” lights were all illuminated. In addition, the left and right fuel gauges indicated “empty.” Both the left and right fuel tanks were sumped, and no fuel was noted. About 2 cups of fuel were drained from the reservoir fuel tank, and a couple ounces of fuel were drained from the fuel strainer. Fuel was later added to the fuel tanks and the engine started and operated normally.
The circumstances of the accident are consistent with the pilot’s inadequate fuel planning, which resulted in fuel exhaustion and a total loss of engine power.
Probable cause
The pilot’s fuel mismanagement, which resulted in a total loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion and subsequent impact with trees during a forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN22LA134
- Event ID
- 20220303104719
- Case number
- CEN22LA134
- 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, coordinates, cause areas. 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: cc4fe915a793ae2660b15f05e3c8277f3a5f27f57de89f91fa11b34af1287b7d; retrieved 2026-09-16T15:00:36.354Z.