Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
Craven County Regional Airport
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
New Bern, North Carolina 28560
Friday, May 14, 2004 8:51 EDT
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
According to the pilot, he departed a grass airstrip which had no fuel available en-route to Michael J. Smithfield in Beaufort, North Carolina. The pilot felt that the fuel gauges were unreliable and used a home made dipstick to dip the fuel tanks. He reported that he had 35 gallons of fuel onboard. From previous flights the pilot estimated that 17 gallons of fuel was all that would be required to make the trip. The pilot stated that he had recently had a new engine installed with instructions to operate it with the mixture in the full rich setting during the break-in period, so the flight was conducted with the mixture set in this position. He said that unexpected headwinds were encountered at his cruising altitude of 5,500 feet. He stated that he was originally on the left main tank when the engine sputtered and quit, at this point after checking the fuel gauges, he switched to the right main tank and called air traffic control at Cherry Point, North Carolina for flight following to Craven County Airport in New Bern, North Carolina. After about three minutes of operation on the right tank, the engine began sputtering and quit, the pilot then switched the fuel selector to each of the four tanks individually but was unable to restart the engine. The New Bern tower had authorized an emergency landing on any runway and had alerted the airport fire and rescue vehicles. During his descent the pilot raised his flaps from the approach setting to zero, this resulted in a greater sink rate. Unable to make the runway, the airplane contacted the downhill side of a knoll at 100 mph, and bounced 195 feet where it contacted the ground and stopped short of runway 04. The pilot was uninjured and during a subsequent interview he readily admitted that the engine was running fine when it lost power and that he ran out of fuel. The pilot had over-flown several airports where additional fuel could have been purchased. Post- accident examination of the airframe did not reveal any flight control anomalies.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
The pilot's inadequate pre-flight planning which resulted in a loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Accident |
| Event Date | 5/14/2004 |
| Event Day of the Week | Friday |
| Time of Event | 851 |
| Event Time Zone | Eastern Daylight Time |
| Event City | New Bern |
| Event State | NORTH CAROLINA |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 28560 |
| Event Date Year | 2004 |
| Event Date Month | 5 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | 350422N |
| Event Location Longitude | 0770224W |
| Event Location Airport | Craven County Regional |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | EWN |
| Indicates whether the acc/inc occurred off or on an airport | Off Airport/Airstrip |
| Distance from airport in statute miles | 1 |
| Degrees magnetic from airport | 40 |
| Airport Elevation | 18 |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | Not pertinent |
| Investigator's weather source | Weather Observation Facility |
| Time of the weather observation | 1254 Eastern Daylight Time |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | 220 |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | KEWN |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | 18 |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | 1 |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | EDT |
| Lighting Conditions | Day |
| Lowest Ceiling Height | -- |
| Lowest Non-Ceiling Height | -- |
| Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions | Clear |
| Sky Condition for Lowest Ceiling | None |
| Visibility Runway Visual Range (Feet) | -- |
| Visibility Runway Visual Value (Statute Miles) | -- |
| Visibility (Statute Miles) | 10 |
| Air Temperature at event time (in degrees celsius) | 24 |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | 19 |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | 230 |
| Variable Wind Indicator | Wind direction could be determined |
| Wind Speed (knots) | 7 |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | -- |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Not Gusting |
| Wind Gust (knots) | -- |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | 30.32 |
| Density Altitude (feet) | 721 |
| Intensity of Precipitation | -- |
| METAR weather report | -- |
| Event Highest Injury | None |
| On Ground, Fatal Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Minor Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Serious Injuries | -- |
| Injury Total Fatal | -- |
| Injury Total Minor | -- |
| Injury Total None | 1 |
| Injury Total Serious | -- |
| Injury Total All | -- |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 18075 |
| NTSB Notification Source | FAA |
| NTSB Notification Date | May 14 2004 12:00AM |
| NTSB Notification Time | 0 |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | DMS |
| Date of most recent change to record | Sep 13 2005 12:54PM |
| User who most recently changed record | NTSB\JOHB |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | Greensboro FSDO |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | N3260W |
| NTSB Number | ATL04LA117 |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | -- |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | Part 91: General Aviation |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | None |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | No |
| Damage | Substantial |
| Aircraft Fire | None |
| Aircraft Explosion | None |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | Piper |
| Aircraft Model | PA-32-260 |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | -- |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 32-84 |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | 3500 |
| 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 | Retractable |
| Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection | Annual |
| Date of Last Inspection | May 1 2004 12:00AM |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | 5 |
| Airframe Hours | 1600 |
| ELT Installed | Yes |
| ELT Activated | No |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | No |
| ELT Type | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Name | John M Sawyer |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | 5903 Raineywood Dr |
| Aircraft Owner City | Mebane |
| Aircraft Owner State | NC |
| Aircraft Owner Country | USA |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | 27302 |
| Operator is an individual? | No |
| 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? | -- |
| Certified for Part 133 or 137 Operation | -- |
| 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) | Personal |
| Second Pilot on Board | No |
| Departure Point Same as Event | No |
| Departure Airport Code | 7NC6 |
| Departure City | Mebane |
| Departure State | NC |
| Departure Country | USA |
| Departure Time | 730 |
| Departure Time Zone | EDT |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | -- |
| Destination Airport Code | MRH |
| Destination City | Beaufort |
| Destination State | NC |
| Destination Country | USA |
| Specific Phase of Flight | Landing - flare/touchdown |
| Report sent to ICAO? | No |
| Evacuation occurred | No |
| Date of most recent change to record | May 17 2005 2:51PM |
| User who most recently changed record | POWP |
| Since inspection or accident | Time of Accident |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | 04 |
| Runway Length | 6004 |
| Runway Width | 150 |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |