Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
Atlantic Ocean
Wednesday, May 17, 2000 11:30 GMT
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
The Cessna 172N was being delivered from Tampa, Florida, to its new owner, a Spanish flight School at La Coruna, Spain. After a brief stop at Bangor, Maine, where a 124 US gallon long-range (ferry) fuel system was installed, the pilot began the trans-Atlantic portion of the flight. The aircraft performed normally on the Bangor-Gander leg and on to Santa Maria, Azores. The aircraft was fueled with 111.22 US gallons of fuel at Santa Maria adding to the fuel remaining from the flight from Gander, and the pilot estimated an endurance of 13.5 hours of fuel for the 9.5 hour flight to La Coruna. He departed Santa Maria on the wing fuel tanks and after 30 minutes, as per his established procedure, shut down the wing fuel tank system and switched over to the long-range tank system. Approximately 5 hours into the cruise portion of the flight, the engine ceased operating for unknown reasons. The pilot was unable to achieve a restart after switching to the wing tanks and further trouble shooting. The aircraft was ditched about 350 miles west of the coast of Portugal, and a Portuguese fishing vessel retrieved the pilot several hours after the ditching. The aircraft remained afloat for several hours in a nose down attitude and eventually sank in 5,000 meters of water.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
A loss of engine power for undetermined reasons.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Accident |
| Event Date | 5/17/2000 |
| Event Day of the Week | Wednesday |
| Time of Event | 1130 |
| Event Time Zone | -- |
| Event City | ATLANTIC OCEAN |
| Event State | ATLANTIC OCEAN |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 00000 |
| Event Date Year | 2000 |
| Event Date Month | 5 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | -- |
| Event Location Longitude | -- |
| Event Location Airport | |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | |
| Indicates whether the acc/inc occurred off or on an airport | Off Airport/Airstrip |
| Distance from airport in statute miles | -- |
| Degrees magnetic from airport | -- |
| Airport Elevation | -- |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | Unknown |
| Investigator's weather source | Pilot |
| Time of the weather observation | 0 |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | 0 |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | 0 |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | 0 |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | |
| Lighting Conditions | Day |
| Lowest Ceiling Height | 5000 |
| Lowest Non-Ceiling Height | 0 |
| Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions | Unknown |
| Sky Condition for Lowest Ceiling | Overcast |
| Visibility Runway Visual Range (Feet) | 0 |
| Visibility Runway Visual Value (Statute Miles) | 0 |
| Visibility (Statute Miles) | 30 |
| Air Temperature at event time (in degrees celsius) | 18 |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | -- |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | 40 |
| Variable Wind Indicator | Unknown |
| Wind Speed (knots) | 15 |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | Unknown |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Not Gusting |
| Wind Gust (knots) | 0 |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | 29 |
| Density Altitude (feet) | -- |
| Intensity of Precipitation | Unknown |
| METAR weather report | -- |
| Event Highest Injury | None |
| On Ground, Fatal Injuries | 0 |
| On Ground, Minor Injuries | 0 |
| On Ground, Serious Injuries | 0 |
| Injury Total Fatal | -- |
| Injury Total Minor | -- |
| Injury Total None | 1 |
| Injury Total Serious | -- |
| Injury Total All | -- |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 776 |
| NTSB Notification Source | Pilot |
| NTSB Notification Date | Jun 5 2000 12:00AM |
| NTSB Notification Time | 1250 |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | IMAGE |
| Date of most recent change to record | May 11 2001 4:06AM |
| User who most recently changed record | dbo |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | -- |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | N738VZ |
| NTSB Number | SEA00LA100 |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | N |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | Part 91: General Aviation |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | IFR |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | -- |
| Damage | Destroyed |
| Aircraft Fire | None |
| Aircraft Explosion | None |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | Cessna |
| Aircraft Model | 172N |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | 172N |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 17270284 |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | 2400 |
| Aircraft Category | Airplane |
| Aircraft Registration Class | U.S. Registered/U.S. Soil |
| Aircraft is a homebuilt? | No |
| Flight Crew Seats | -- |
| Cabin Crew Seats | -- |
| Passenger Seats | -- |
| Total number of seats on the aircraft | 4 |
| Number of Engines | 1 |
| Fixed gear or retractable gear | Fixed |
| Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection | Annual |
| Date of Last Inspection | -- |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | -- |
| Airframe Hours | -- |
| ELT Installed | Yes |
| ELT Activated | Unknown |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | Unknown |
| ELT Type | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Name | ASA INTERNATIONAL (CENTRAL FL) |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | 109 ORANGE RIDGE DRIVE |
| Aircraft Owner City | LONGWOOD |
| Aircraft Owner State | FL |
| Aircraft Owner Country | |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | 32779 |
| Operator is an individual? | -- |
| Operator Name | |
| Operator Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Is Doing Business As | -- |
| Operator Address Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Street Address | |
| Operator City | |
| Operator State | |
| Operator Country | |
| Operator Zip code | |
| Operator Code | |
| Owner has at least one certificate | None |
| Other Operator of large aircraft? | No |
| Certified for Part 133 or 137 Operation | Unknown |
| Operator Certificate Number | -- |
| Indicates whether an air carrier operation was scheduled or not | -- |
| Indicates Domestic or International Flight | -- |
| Operator carrying Pax/Cargo/Mail | -- |
| Type of Flying (Per_Bus / Primary) | Ferry |
| Second Pilot on Board | No |
| Departure Point Same as Event | No |
| Departure Airport Code | LPAZ |
| Departure City | SANTA MARIA |
| Departure State | OF |
| Departure Country | |
| Departure Time | 620 |
| Departure Time Zone | GMT |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | -- |
| Destination Airport Code | LECU |
| Destination City | LA CORUNA |
| Destination State | OF |
| Destination Country | |
| Specific Phase of Flight | -- |
| Report sent to ICAO? | -- |
| Evacuation occurred | -- |
| Date of most recent change to record | May 11 2001 4:06AM |
| User who most recently changed record | dbo |
| Since inspection or accident | -- |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | 0 |
| Runway Length | -- |
| Runway Width | -- |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |