The Accident
During a night flight, the airplane experienced a loss of engine power. The pilot stated that the aircraft ran out of fuel while in flight. Subsequently, during the forced landing, the airplane collided with ground obstructions, specifically trees, and sustained damage.
Responding police officers observed only residual fuel in the fuel tanks. In a written statement, the pilot described his preflight inspection: he looked inside the fuel tanks and noted that the fuel level was about 1 to 2 inches below the filler neck. He assumed that the fuel gauges, which indicated over 3/4 full, were correct. Based on that assumption, he estimated that approximately 2 hours 45 minutes of fuel was onboard.
The pilot did not use a calibrated dipstick or other definitive means to quantify the amount of fuel in the tanks. When the engine began to run rough, he looked at the fuel gauges, which then read zero.