22 Dec 2019: Cosmos Phase II

22 Dec 2019: Cosmos Phase II — Unknown operator

No fatalities • Lake Havasu City, AZ, United States

Probable cause

The total loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion, which resulted from the pilot's inadequate preflight fuel inspection.

— NTSB Determination

Accident narrative

The private pilot reported that during cruise flight at an altitude of about 800 ft above ground level, the engine lost power. Despite his attempt, he could not restart the engine and initiated a landing in the open desert. During the landing roll, the aircraft impacted a large boulder. The pilot stated that the examination of the trike after the accident revealed that he had ran out of gas. The pilot added that the trike was not equipped with a fuel quantity gauge, and that the only way to verify the fuel level was visually looking into the fuel tank. Additionally, he thought he had a full tank of gas prior to takeoff.The trike sustained substantial damage to the forward upright wing support tubes.

The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the trike that would have precluded normal operation.

Contributing factors

  • cause Fluid level
  • cause Pilot
  • Effect on operation

Conditions

Weather
VMC, vis 10sm

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.