Aircraft Accident/Incident Report

Shell Lake, Wisconsin 54871
Tuesady, August 13, 2002 23:33 CDT

The Cessna 172 impacted into a cornfield on a night flight in visual meteorological conditions. The accident occurred at 2333 local time. That day, the pilot had flown the accident airplane on a 154 nautical mile leg. He had flown another airplane, a Beech 76, on two 56 nautical mile legs. In addition he had taken a flight examination in the Beech 76, consisting of 2.8 hours of ground testing and 1.5 hours of flight testing. These flights occurred prior to the pilot re-boarding the accident airplane for the 154 nautical mile return flight to the original departure airport. The accident occurred 93 nautical miles into the return flight. Examination of the airplane revealed no preexisting anomalies. The right wing fuel tank was breached but an un-compromised area below the height of the breach contained no fuel. The left wing came to rest inverted with the fuel filler cap was in place and no evidence of a fuel leaking from the cap. About 1 gallon of fuel was drained from the left fuel tank. The airplane rental logbook, the recording tachometer and recording hour-meter times indicate that the airplane had accumulated 4.8 engine hours and 5.5 hour-meter hours since being fueled four days prior to the accident. No records of subsequent fueling were found. The airplane flight manual lists a sea level fuel endurance, with 45 minutes reserve, of 3.9 hours at 75 percent power, 4.6 hours at 65 percent power, 5.5 hours at 55 percent power, and 6.4 hours at 45 percent power.

The pilot's failure to refuel the airplane prior to departure leading to fuel exhaustion during the flight, the inadequate preflight/inflight planning, and the unsuitable terrain encountered by the pilot during the forced landing attempt. Contributing factors were the pilot being fatigued, the night lighting condition, and the corn crop.