What happened
On October 20, the aircraft, a Convair CV-690 registered as N55VM, departed Greenville Downtown Airport in South Carolina, bound for Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The flight was operating as a charter service carrying members of the Lynyrld Skynyrd band and their manager. The pilot had filed an IFR flight plan and requested an altitude of 12,000 feet.
During the flight, the crew contacted Houston Air Route Traffic Control Center to request a descent to 6,000 feet. Shortly thereafter, the crew notified controllers that they required an airport diversion due to low fuel levels. While being vectored toward McComb, Mississippi, the pilot initially stated they were not declaring an emergency but emphasized the need for a direct path to the destination. However, minutes later, the crew reported that they were out of fuel, though they clarified it was an indication of fuel depletion rather than total exhaustion.
The final communication from the aircraft occurred at 18:45:47, when the pilot reported being at 4,500 feet. Following this, contact was lost. An emergency locator transmitter signal was detected approximately ten minutes later. The aircraft subsequently crashed in a heavily wooded area near Gillsburg, Mississippi, during twilight. The crash resulted in 4 fatalities, including both pilots and several band members. The airframe was destroyed upon impact.
Findings
Investigations concluded that the primary cause of the accident was fuel exhaustion leading to a total loss of power in both engines. This was driven by the crew's failure to properly monitor fuel flow, consumption rates, and quantity gauges during the flight.
Several contributing factors were identified:
- Inadequate flight planning regarding fuel reserves.
- An engine malfunction in the right engine that caused higher than normal fuel consumption.
- The crew's failure to ensure an adequate fuel supply through proper preflight and maintenance procedures.
- The operation of the aircraft with the right engine's mixture control set to the auto-rich position for an undetermined period prior to the crash.