Accident Sequence
Two days before the accident, the pilot fueled the aircraft to capacity and flew it a short distance to his house at a private airstrip. After the flight, he noticed fuel on the tops of both wings, aft of the fuel filler caps. The pilot was aware that fuel had leaked from the thermos-type fuel caps.
During the next flight, while the aircraft was on an ILS approach to the destination airport, the engine lost power due to fuel exhaustion. The pilot descended below the cloud layer and made an emergency landing in a peach orchard, where the aircraft was damaged.
Fuel Consumption and Siphoning
The aircraft had flown 3.63 hours since it was last refueled. The pilot reported that it had at least 4.3 hours of fuel on board after the last refueling. He believed that some 5 to 6 gallons of fuel had siphoned from each tank.
Maintenance History
Airworthiness Directive (AD) 68-13-03 required an inspection of the fuel caps for dryness and hardness after each 100 hours of flight. The last entry in the log for compliance with this AD was in 1985 at approximately 2,590 hours. Total airframe time on the date of the accident was 2,981 hours.