Accident Details
On an unspecified date, a Venezuelan-registered Beech King Air C90 departed Caracas, Venezuela's Óscar Machado Zuloaga International Airport at 1516 eastern daylight time with a pilot and two passengers aboard. The planned route filed with air traffic control was direct to Maiquetia, then Amber Route-315 to Bimini, then Bahama Route 57V to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, Florida. The planned flight level was 220, and the pilot stated that 7 hours 15 minutes of fuel was aboard.
Immigration and customs general declaration papers found in the wreckage listed the intended destination as Nassau. The pilot's daughter stated that he always stopped at Nassau for fuel on previous trips.
After 6 hours 6 minutes of flight, the aircraft crashed into a highway abutment approximately 1,700 feet short of its intended landing runway at Fort Lauderdale. Total accountable onboard fuel was 3 to 4 gallons. One passenger received fatal injuries, one passenger received serious injuries, and the pilot received serious injuries.
Investigation
Examination at an engine factory service center disassembly revealed that the engines and their components exhibited no evidence of any condition that would have precluded normal operation before the crash. No precrash abnormalities were noted in the propellers, their components, or any other aircraft system component.
Type certification data sheets for the Beech King Air C90 specify that the unusable fuel aboard is 24 pounds (3.6 gallons of Jet-A fuel).
Probable Cause
The official probable cause was the pilot's failure to properly plan fuel consumption and to perform an en route refueling, resulting in a total loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion while on downwind leg for landing at the eventual destination, causing an emergency descent and collision with a highway embankment.