Flight Planning
The crew planned to practice landings at an airport approximately 20 minutes away, then stop for fuel and return to the original departure airport. Prior to departure, the crew discussed fuel endurance, calculating it to be 2 hours based on the captain's knowledge of the airplane's fuel consumption and the fuel quantity indicated on the gauges. The fuel tanks were not dipped. The flight was conducted at 1,500 feet mean sea level.
Practice Landing and Engine Overspeed
Upon reaching the practice airport, the crew performed one full stop landing, then taxied back for takeoff. During takeoff, an engine experienced a momentary overspeed. The crew decided to return directly to the original departure airport without refueling.
Return and Fuel Exhaustion
While approaching the original departure airport, the airplane had to delay landing for approximately 7 minutes to perform a manual gear extension. After completing the gear extension, the airplane turned back toward the airport, at that point about 6 miles from the runway. The fuel pressure for one engine dropped. The boost pumps were turned on, but the engine lost power. Subsequently, a low fuel pressure light illuminated for another engine. The captain called for the flight engineer to switch fuel feed to another tank; the flight engineer responded, "we're out of fuel." The remaining engines then lost power, and the captain ditched the airplane into a bay. The time from initial takeoff to ditching was 1 hour and 19 minutes.
Aircraft Status
The airplane had flown 39 hours since its restoration. Exact fuel capacities, fuel flow calculations, and unusable fuel amounts had not been established. A dipping chart had been prepared by having one person in the cockpit and another adding fuel to a main tank in 25-gallon increments using a yardstick. However, the data had not been verified, and dipping was not considered part of the pre-flight inspection.