9 Oct 2008: VELOCITY INC SE-FG

9 Oct 2008: VELOCITY INC SE-FG — Unknown operator

No fatalities • Chipley, FL, United States

Probable cause

The pilot's inadequate in-flight fuel planning, resulting in loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion.

— NTSB Determination

Accident narrative

The pilot stated that he began a descent for landing in Tallahassee (KTLH) for a planned fuel stop. He reported that the left tank was low, while the right tank had more than one-half tank of fuel. At 7,000 feet msl in the descent, the engine lost power and quit. He was unable to glide to an airport, so he prepared for landing on a road. During the landing, he steered the airplane to avoid an oncoming truck. The left wing struck a pole, resulting in substantial damage. Both main wing fuel tanks gravity feed to a five-gallon sump tank, and an FAA inspector was able to drain approximately two gallons of fuel from the sump tank at the accident site; no fuel could be drained from the main tanks. The tank sight gauges indicated zero in the left tank and well below the lowest mark in the right tank. An additional 4.75 gallons of fuel was recovered during disassembly of the airplane for transport. Inspection of the fuel manifold revealed no evidence of fuel. The owner's representative stated that the low-profile wing tanks would have unusable fuel in a nose-low attitude, since the main tank fuel drains are located aft and inboard on the tank.

Contributing factors

  • cause Pilot
  • cause Fluid level

Conditions

Weather
VMC, vis 20sm

Loading the flight search…

What you can do on Flight Finder

  • Search flights between any two airports with live fares.
  • By aircraft — pick a plane model (e.g. Boeing 787, Airbus A350) and see every route it flies from your origin.
  • Route map — click any airport worldwide to explore its destinations, or draw a radius to find nearby airports.
  • Global aviation safety — aviation accident database, 5,200+ records since 1980, with map and rankings by aircraft and operator.
  • NTSB safety feed — recent U.S. aviation accidents and incidents from the official NTSB CAROL database, updated daily.

Frequently asked questions

How do I search flights by aircraft type on FlightFinder?

Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.

Which aircraft types can I filter by?

We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.

Is FlightFinder free to use?

Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.

Where does the route data come from?

Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.