Possible fuel exhaustion accident..

RyanB

RyanB

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Piper comanche accident in Berrien Springs Mi, this past Friday. All four people survived with serious injuries. A family member of the passengers said "all we know is that they experienced engine trouble at some point in the flight" they were approaching the airport when this happened. A pilot witness on the ground said "he did not hear any engine noise from the airplane and did not see any fuel leaking from the wreckage." Apparently it was engine trouble but it sounds like it could be a possible fuel exhaustion. Any other ideas?
Here is a link to the accident:
http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2014/11/former_pilot_recalls_hearing_p.html
 
They wadded that up pretty good....nice to see they all survived.

Wouldn't be the first time someone had poor fuel planning...if that happens to be the case.
 
Geez, looking at the pictures, that did not look survivable to me at all. (just my opinion)
Glad that they survived and hoping that they all recover quickly. It could have been much uglier.
But seriously, that wreckage looks like the firefighters would be pulling bodies out of. Whew!
 
BigBadLou said:
Geez, looking at the pictures, that did not look survivable to me at all. (just my opinion)
Glad that they survived and hoping that they all recover quickly. It could have been much uglier.
But seriously, that wreckage looks like the firefighters would be pulling bodies out of. Whew!
Click to expand...

It's pretty wadded up all right - but remember it's the impact that kills, and every bit of metal you manage to wrinkle up that is not in the cabin absorbs energy that the cabin doesn't have to, which lowers the final impact. It looks like he was tumbling at final impact and managed to wipe out pretty much everything...
 
MAKG1 said:
That's about 200 miles. Pretty short range for a PA24.
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By just reading the witness report, it sounds like fuel exhaustion, but then again i dont know, just what it seems like. They also had 4 pax most likely with luggage so fuel was probably fairly low for w/b. Also on their track on flightaware it shows they fly right over their destination then turn out to the right and that must be when they had engine failure.
 
Ryanb said:
By just reading the witness report, it sounds like fuel exhaustion, but then again i dont know, just what it seems like. They also had 4 pax most likely with luggage so fuel was probably fairly low for w/b. Also on their track on flightaware it shows they fly right over their destination then turn out to the right and that must be when they had engine failure.
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Yeah, it's kinda hard to imagine fuel not blowing all over the place with the wings all torn up like that. Unless of course there isn't any.

Fuel exhaustion isn't necessarily bad fuel planning. Could be a leak. It's actually pretty easy for a PA28 at least to leak out the gascolator sump. Don't know about a PA24.
 
MAKG1 said:
Yeah, it's kinda hard to imagine fuel not blowing all over the place with the wings all torn up like that. Unless of course there isn't any.

Fuel exhaustion isn't necessarily bad fuel planning. Could be a leak. It's actually pretty easy for a PA28 at least to leak out the gascolator sump. Don't know about a PA24.
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Thats what i was thinking too, news report says they had engine trouble and couldnt get it restarted, and witness said he did not hear any engine noise or observe any leaking fuel. Like you say i would think there would be fuel around and or flames go up with wings like that.
 
Could also be he was low on fuel and when he banked he was on the lower tank and the pickup was unported and starved the engine.
 
I would think once he came out of the bank the flow would continue and the engine would restart, never thought of that, but a possibility
 
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