Piper Aircraft Corp PA-32R-301 accident at 9 km south of Bacchus Marsh Aerodrome, Victoria, 1 May 2026 (VH-LPW)

Accident narrative

The aircraft departed Moorabbin with sufficient fuel to conduct the day’s planned flying and the pilot planned to operate the legs to Horsham on the left tank and return on the right. While this plan provided adequate fuel supply to the engine for the day, it was not consistent with the pilot operating handbook’s (POH) requirement to select the fullest tank for the arrival into Horsham (when fuel level in the left tank had reduced below that of the right tank).At Horsham, the pilot inadvertently omitted the planned selection of the right tank for the return flights and then, prior to departure, the fullest (right) tank was not identified and selected as required by the POH. During the return flight to Stawell, the aircraft did not cross an en route waypoint. As a result, the pilot was not prompted by their usual processes to review the aircraft’s fuel state and identify the omission.The pilot’s plan for the day’s flying did not include further tank selections and therefore the pilot was likely not primed to make any further selections. Nevertheless, for the landing and departure from Stawell, the pilot did not select the fullest (right) tank as was required, nor did they identify that the left tank remained selected. Therefore, the aircraft departed Stawell with about 45 L available in the selected tank. This was insufficient fuel to complete the flight.After the departure from Stawell, air traffic control instructions resulted in a change to en route tracking prior to the aircraft crossing the waypoint ESDIG. As the pilot’s practice of reviewing the fuel state was linked to crossing waypoints, the change in tracking resulted in the pilot not being prompted to identify the fuel tank selection omission before the fuel in the left tank was exhausted. As a result, at 1616, the contents of the left tank were exhausted, and the engine began to run rough.Contributing factorOn a previous flight leg, a planned fuel tank change was inadvertently omitted. The omission was not detected prior to the contents of the left fuel tank being exhausted and the engine began running rough.In response to the rough running, the pilot commenced the emergency actions and changed to the right fuel tank. After taking this action, the POH instructed that it could take up to 10 seconds for the empty fuel lines to be filled before the engine would restart. However, the pilot almost certainly did not allow this time to elapse before assessing that the engine failure was not fuel‑related and shutting off fuel to the engine.After shutting off the fuel, the pilot then successfully completed a forced landing at Bacchus Marsh. After landing, the serviceability of the engine was confirmed when a start was attempted and, after sufficient time was allowed for the empty fuel lines to be filled, the engine started and ran without issue.Shutting off the fuel to the engine before sufficient time had elapsed for it to restart resulted in an unnecessary forced landing that increased risk to the flight.Contributing factorIn response to the rough running, the appropriate emergency actions were not fully completed, and the engine was shut down before those actions could take effect. A landing was then completed without engine power.