What happened
Two days prior to the accident, the pilot fueled the aircraft type to capacity and completed a short flight to a private airstrip near his residence. Following that flight, the pilot observed fuel on the upper surfaces of both wings, located behind the fuel filler caps. The pilot was aware that fuel had leaked from the thermos-type fuel caps.
During the subsequent flight, while performing an ILS approach to the destination airport, the engine lost power due to fuel exhaustion. The pilot descended below the cloud layer and executed an emergency landing in a peach orchard. The aircraft sustained damage during the impact.
The investigation
The investigation determined that the aircraft had flown 3.63 hours since its last refueling. Although the pilot reported having at least 4.3 hours of fuel on board after the previous refueling, he believed that approximately 5 to 6 gallons of fuel had siphoned from each tank.
Records indicated that Airworthiness Directive 68-13-03 required inspections of the fuel caps for dryness and hardness after every 100 hours of flight. The last recorded entry for compliance with this AD was in 1985 at approximately 2,590 hours. At the time of the accident, the total airframe time was 2,981 hours.